Post by Janjoon-Lebanese on Dec 4, 2006 10:04:10 GMT -5
Sfeir sounds alarm as tensions threaten
04-12-06
BY: DAILY STAR
Lebanon's Maronite patriarch warned Sunday that any escalation between the country's two rival political camps will lead to clashes. Speaking during Sunday Mass, Patriarch Nasrallah Butros Sfeir said all indications show that "if things keep rising in this manner, they will definitely lead to a clash that should be avoided."
He said the Lebanese had experienced enough wars, the most recent one being the 34-day July-August conflict with Israel, that ended with a UN-brokered cease-fire.
The war saw more than 1,000 people killed, mostly civilians, and more that a million people displaced. It inflicted more than $2.8 billion in direct losses.
We believe a return to a calm and mature dialogue, regardless of how disappointing it was, and stripped of any vulgar rhetoric and insults we are hearing these days, remains safer than strikes and demonstrations and paralyzing the market and terrorizing the people," Sfeir said.
He was indirectly responding to Interior Minister Suleiman Franjieh, who said on Friday "the patriarch got excited by the sight of all those women around him." The women he was referring to were female relatives and widows of assassinated Lebanese leaders.
Franjieh, in a comment aired on Hizbullah's Al-Manar television, lashed out at the prelate for allegedly having said during his meeting with the women that "the Christians who take part in Friday's demonstration to topple the government are not true Christians."
Franjieh said that his comments were misinterpreted by the media and that he meant "the prelate became enthusiastic rather aroused."
On Friday, hundreds of thousands of opposition supporters crammed into the heart of Beirut and besieged the offices of the prime minister in order to force Premier Fouad Siniora to resign or form a national unity government.
The protests were led by Hizbullah and its allies including the Christian Free Patriotic Movement and followers of Franjieh's Marada party.
We are very sorry for what happened previously and what is happening these days, and this is a division among the Christians," Sfeir later told a delegation from Zghorta who came to condemn Franjieh's statements.
But we are what we are: now divided, insulting each others. But we ask you to remain united and to resist the voices of evil, which want to divide. Only national unity can save this country," he added.
04-12-06
BY: DAILY STAR
Lebanon's Maronite patriarch warned Sunday that any escalation between the country's two rival political camps will lead to clashes. Speaking during Sunday Mass, Patriarch Nasrallah Butros Sfeir said all indications show that "if things keep rising in this manner, they will definitely lead to a clash that should be avoided."
He said the Lebanese had experienced enough wars, the most recent one being the 34-day July-August conflict with Israel, that ended with a UN-brokered cease-fire.
The war saw more than 1,000 people killed, mostly civilians, and more that a million people displaced. It inflicted more than $2.8 billion in direct losses.
We believe a return to a calm and mature dialogue, regardless of how disappointing it was, and stripped of any vulgar rhetoric and insults we are hearing these days, remains safer than strikes and demonstrations and paralyzing the market and terrorizing the people," Sfeir said.
He was indirectly responding to Interior Minister Suleiman Franjieh, who said on Friday "the patriarch got excited by the sight of all those women around him." The women he was referring to were female relatives and widows of assassinated Lebanese leaders.
Franjieh, in a comment aired on Hizbullah's Al-Manar television, lashed out at the prelate for allegedly having said during his meeting with the women that "the Christians who take part in Friday's demonstration to topple the government are not true Christians."
Franjieh said that his comments were misinterpreted by the media and that he meant "the prelate became enthusiastic rather aroused."
On Friday, hundreds of thousands of opposition supporters crammed into the heart of Beirut and besieged the offices of the prime minister in order to force Premier Fouad Siniora to resign or form a national unity government.
The protests were led by Hizbullah and its allies including the Christian Free Patriotic Movement and followers of Franjieh's Marada party.
We are very sorry for what happened previously and what is happening these days, and this is a division among the Christians," Sfeir later told a delegation from Zghorta who came to condemn Franjieh's statements.
But we are what we are: now divided, insulting each others. But we ask you to remain united and to resist the voices of evil, which want to divide. Only national unity can save this country," he added.
