Maronite Patriarch Bechara Boutros al-Rai declared that Syrian refugees make up more than half of Lebanon’s population and pose the greatest threat to Lebanon. “We are living on an erupting volcano,” he stated.
In an interview with local TV channel MTV as part of his visit to Australia, the Patriarch asked, “Why are we wasting time when the State is disintegrating, the people are hungry, the Syrians have invaded Lebanon and we are still without a president?” He added that “the indifference of the international community lies in the fact that it does not want Syrians to return to their country, and the international community links their return to the presence of President Bashar al-Assad in power.”
