Maronite patriarch Bechara Rai strongly condemned the fact that the ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel is being negotiated in the absence of a President of the Republic, a position at the head of the State which has been vacant since October 31, 2022. He stated that this “renders the talks illegitimate,” as it is an integral part of the prerogatives of a Head of State.
“Who is negotiating the ceasefire? In whose name and for whose benefit? This is the first prerogative of the President of the Republic, who is intentionally and deliberately absent so that their work remains incomplete and illegitimate,” the prelate firmly deplored during his Sunday homily.
He remorsefully touched upon all the devastation that Lebanon is living through, with “a war with deadly weapons, casualties and destruction as a result, one and a half million people displaced and sometimes homeless.”
The Maronite Patriarch also stated that Parliament had become “an electoral body” that had lost its role of overseeing a cabinet that was now “divided and lacking full powers.”
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