Lebanon’s top Christian cleric calls for international conference to ‘save’ country

Lebanon’s top Christian cleric calls for international conference to ‘save’ country

Lebanon's top Christian cleric Maronite Patriarch Bechara Boutros Al-Rai has called for an international conference to take measures that will implement international acts to save Lebanon and allow the state to extend its authority over its entire territory.

Al-Rai added that the conference must provide support to the Lebanese army for it to be the only defender of the state.

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Lebanon has been facing an unprecedented political and economic crisis resulting from decades of governmental corruption and mismanagement along with the growing power that Iran-backed Hezbollah has in the country which resulted in an isolation of the small nation from its Arab and international historical allies.

The Maronite church has always played a fundamental role in Lebanon's history. Patriarch Elias Hoayek headed a Lebanese delegation to the Paris Peace Conference in 1919 which called for the establishment of the state of Lebanon. Lebanon's former Maronite patriarch Nasrallah Boutros Sfeir had a major role in shaping Lebanon's current political system after the Taif agreement which ended the civil war. He is also considered the leading religious figure which resulted in Syria's withdrawal from Lebanon.

Al-Rai called on the Lebanese to not