Maronite Patriarch Bechara Boutros al-Raei renewed on Sunday March 14 his call to refuse the presence of any weapons other than the “Lebanese Army weapon.”
He said that any other weapon is “illegal,” referring to Hezbollah’s weapon.
“The army is the legitimate forces that are responsible for defending Lebanon, so it is not permissible to legislate or cover the presence of any illegal weapon besides its weapon,” he indicated.
“The army is the Lebanese Home Army, and no one has the right to make it the army of authority, and it is the army of democracy, and no one has the right to turn it into an army of oppressive measures,” al-Raei Confirmed.
Supporters of Hezbollah militia and Iran’s Al-Alam channel attacked Maronite Patriarch, Cardinal Mar Beshara Boutros Al-Raei, last week, accusing him of supporting “normalization with Israel”, after his calls for neutrality, holding a special international conference for Lebanon, and withdrawing “illegal” arms.
“We understand the grumbling of the military establishment, the Lebanese army is the Lebanese people, and it is not permissible for the army to confront its own people. Army is the legitimate authority and it cannot be neglected,” al-Raei mentioned.
Maronite Patriarch stressed that Lebanon should remain neutral, and called for an international conference under the auspices of the UN, to save Lebanon.
He confirmed that everything he put forward and his demand for the international conference was rejected for the sake of keeping the chaos, pushing toward the fall of the state, and seizing the power.
“The country is about to witness a coup, the first coup has been already seen on the document of national accord,” al-Raei explained.
It is worth mentioning that Charbel Wahba the Lebanese Foreign Minister, summoned last Sunday, Mohammad Jalal Feroznia the Iranian ambassador to Lebanon, against the background of what was published by the Iranian channel Al-Alam, against the Maronite Patriarch, Mar Bechara Boutros al-Rahi, but the latter refused to attend.
Following the great uproar that accompanied the article, the calls for the channel to apologize and asking the Iranian Ambassador in Lebanon to explain the reasons behind that article, the Iranian channel deleted it, stressing that there was a misunderstanding of the patriarch’s statements.
