Suleiman said Rai doesn’t need to be defended

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President Michel Suleiman met on Thursday with Maronite Patriarch Bechara Boutros al-Rai and said that the Patriarch “does not need anyone to defend him.”

“The patriarch does not need to be defended, and his stances represent his way of taking responsibility for Lebanon’s Christians,” Suleiman said in reference to Rai’s recent stances on the Syrian crisis

The president also said that Rai’s last week visit to France “was successful,” adding that “it benefits Lebanon.”

Rai came under fire last Friday from the opposition March 14 parties but won praise from March 8 politicians for indirectly defending Hezbollah’s arms and linking the party’s arsenal to the termination of Israeli occupation of Lebanese territory and the return of Palestinian refugees to their homeland . Even MP Walid Jumblatt who defected from March 14 alliance was very critical of Rai’s statements.

Last Thursday, Rai emphasized that only when the international community exerts pressure on Israel to vacate the occupied Lebanese territory ( the Shebaa Farms, Kfar Shouba hills and the Lebanese part of the disputed border village of Ghajar ) and Israel allows Palestinians in Lebanon to return to their homes, can Hezbollah be asked to hand over its arms because they will no longer be needed.”

He added that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is “open-minded” and should be given more chances to implement the reforms he already announced.

Fares Soueid, coordinator of the March 14 Secretariat General, rejected Rai’s remarks on the divisive issue of Hezbollah :“Patriarch Rai’s statement is coming in contradiction with the principles of the Maronite Church which has since 1943 been supporting the project of state building,” He said adding

“The Maronite Church is condemning the presence of non-legitimate weapons in the hands of any of the communities in Lebanon, Christian or Muslim.”

The opposition March 14 parties, including former Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s Future Movement, have launched blistering campaigns against Hezbollah, calling on the party to hand over its arms to Lebanese authorities. They also accused Hezbollah of running its own mini-state at the expense of state authority.“The state, and not any other Lebanese party, is responsible for defending Lebanon. It is the state that takes charge of forcing Israel to leave Lebanese territory and not any Lebanese party,” Soueid said.

Jumblatt

“Linking the fate of Lebanon to the liberation of the Shebaa Farms and linking its future to all the region’s conflicts are rejected,” Jumblatt said in his weekly article in the PSP’s weekly newspaper Al-Anbaa

“Therefore, the [Lebanese-Syrian] borders must be demarcated. This demand had been unanimously approved at the National Dialogue [conference] in 2006,” Jumblatt said.

“While affirming the defensive significance represented by the resistance’s arms, it is essential to draw up a defensive plan through which [Hezbollah’s] arms are gradually accommodated in the framework of the Lebanese state as provided for by the [2008] Doha Accord in order to bolster the Lebanese state’s capability to confront any possible Israeli aggression,” Jumblatt said.

Pieton

Meanwhile, French Ambassador to Lebanon Dennis Pietton described Rai’s visit to France as “successful,” but expressed regret that the patriarch’s statements on Syria and Hezbollah’s arms had caused divisions among the Lebanese.

Speaking to reporters after meeting Prime Minister Najib Mikati at the Grand Serail last Tuesday , Pietton said Rai’s visit to France was “important” during which the patriarch met a number of French officials, including President Nicholas Sarkozy, to discuss Lebanese-French ties, the popular uprisings in the Arab world, including the situation Syria, the STL and the work of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon.

“But we regret that the patriarch’s visit had aroused this quantity of debate over his statements … We regret that this visit, which was successful and gave the patriarch a chance to express his opinion, had touched off this debate and divisions among the Lebanese in the Lebanese political arena,” Pietton said.

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26 responses to “Suleiman said Rai doesn’t need to be defended”

  1. sheikh rai needs to be relocated to da7yee so he can really feel at home

    you gotta love how everyone who wears a robe is to supposed to be holy

    1. antar2011 Avatar

      100% agree

    2. settle down…

    3. 5thDrawer Avatar

      Well maria-h, with all those ‘robed wonders’ walking around, that’s why it became a ‘Confessional Parliamentary Democracy’ … you can confess all the sins after you commit them and everyone will be happy … with the only problem being that some of the robed fatheads don’t believe they need to confess anything to anyone because they think nothing they do is a sin … which is why it doesn’t work.

  2. sheikh rai needs to be relocated to da7yee so he can really feel at home

    you gotta love how everyone who wears a robe is to supposed to be holy

    1. antar2011 Avatar

      100% agree

  3.  Avatar

    sheikh rai needs to be relocated to da7yee so he can really feel at home

    you gotta love how everyone who wears a robe is to supposed to be holy

    1.  Avatar

      100% agree

    2.  Avatar

      settle down…

    3.  Avatar

      Well maria-h, with all those ‘robed wonders’ walking around, that’s why it became a ‘Confessional Parliamentary Democracy’ … you can confess all the sins after you commit them and everyone will be happy … with the only problem being that some of the robed fatheads don’t believe they need to confess anything to anyone because they think nothing they do is a sin … which is why it doesn’t work.

    4.  Avatar

      Well maria-h, with all those ‘robed wonders’ walking around, that’s why it became a ‘Confessional Parliamentary Democracy’ … you can confess all the sins after you commit them and everyone will be happy … with the only problem being that some of the robed fatheads don’t believe they need to confess anything to anyone because they think nothing they do is a sin … which is why it doesn’t work.

  4. Sleiman what a challenging president ,any speech that made a thunder 🙂 ,any achievement beside selling lives of  soldiers in Nahr el bared to become president. El Zaiitrie are stealing lands beside his Amchit hometown and no word from him. As Mikati revealed talks in Wikileaks , Soleiman told him ,I thought the presidency is hard it turned out to be so easy, For sure easy when you have fun travelling to UN to do nothing, going to meet the Patriarch now for what to meet him, does the Patriarch need your support or you actually the one who needs it  your visit to him because you like his opinion about Syria and Hizbollah, because you are like the previous Lahoud just a bus boy to Nasrallah and Assad  ,un homme banale , with no fire , but inside  a dictator , showing your muscles on Lebanese forces only . Soon we will be done with you and all military who dreams to become president. This institution need tons of Javex to clean it !!!

    1. antar2011 Avatar

      hear hear!

  5. Sleiman what a challenging president ,any speech that made a thunder 🙂 ,any achievement beside selling lives of  soldiers in Nahr el bared to become president. El Zaiitrie are stealing lands beside his Amchit hometown and no word from him. As Mikati revealed talks in Wikileaks , Soleiman told him ,I thought the presidency is hard it turned out to be so easy, For sure easy when you have fun travelling to UN to do nothing, going to meet the Patriarch now for what to meet him, does the Patriarch need your support or you actually the one who needs it  your visit to him because you like his opinion about Syria and Hizbollah, because you are like the previous Lahoud just a bus boy to Nasrallah and Assad  ,un homme banale , with no fire , but inside  a dictator , showing your muscles on Lebanese forces only . Soon we will be done with you and all military who dreams to become president. This institution need tons of Javex to clean it !!!

    1. antar2011 Avatar

      hear hear!

  6. Sleiman what a challenging president ,any speech that made a thunder 🙂 ,any achievement beside selling lives of  soldiers in Nahr el bared to become president. El Zaiitrie are stealing lands beside his Amchit hometown and no word from him. As Mikati revealed talks in Wikileaks , Soleiman told him ,I thought the presidency is hard it turned out to be so easy, For sure easy when you have fun travelling to UN to do nothing, going to meet the Patriarch now for what to meet him, does the Patriarch need your support or you actually the one who needs it  your visit to him because you like his opinion about Syria and Hizbollah, because you are like the previous Lahoud just a bus boy to Nasrallah and Assad  ,un homme banale , with no fire , but inside  a dictator , showing your muscles on Lebanese forces only . Soon we will be done with you and all military who dreams to become president. This institution need tons of Javex to clean it !!!

    1.  Avatar

      hear hear!

  7. Sleiman what a challenging president ,any speech that made a thunder 🙂 ,any achievement beside selling lives of  soldiers in Nahr el bared to become president. El Zaiitrie are stealing lands beside his Amchit hometown and no word from him. As Mikati revealed talks in Wikileaks , Soleiman told him ,I thought the presidency is hard it turned out to be so easy, For sure easy when you have fun travelling to UN to do nothing, going to meet the Patriarch now for what to meet him, does the Patriarch need your support or you actually the one who needs it  your visit to him because you like his opinion about Syria and Hizbollah, because you are like the previous Lahoud just a bus boy to Nasrallah and Assad  ,un homme banale , with no fire , but inside  a dictator , showing your muscles on Lebanese forces only . Soon we will be done with you and all military who dreams to become president. This institution need tons of Javex to clean it !!!

  8. antar2011 Avatar

    if the patriarch does not need anyone to defend whay are you opening your mouth and commenting on the mistake the rai made?

    sulaiwoman’s speech puts the patriarchi more in embaressment i reckon.

    anyway, the patriarch has corrected his stances…can anyone tell president sulaiwoman that.

  9. antar2011 Avatar

    if the patriarch does not need anyone to defend whay are you opening your mouth and commenting on the mistake the rai made?

    sulaiwoman’s speech puts the patriarchi more in embaressment i reckon.

    anyway, the patriarch has corrected his stances…can anyone tell president sulaiwoman that.

  10.  Avatar

    if the patriarch does not need anyone to defend whay are you opening your mouth and commenting on the mistake the rai made?

    sulaiwoman’s speech puts the patriarchi more in embaressment i reckon.

    anyway, the patriarch has corrected his stances…can anyone tell president sulaiwoman that.

  11. FadiAbboud Avatar

    Rai may be a religious man but he is praying to the wrong God,much like Oun..
    May Jesus have mercy on his soul

  12. FadiAbboud Avatar

    Rai may be a religious man but he is praying to the wrong God,much like Oun..
    May Jesus have mercy on his soul

  13.  Avatar

    Rai may be a religious man but he is praying to the wrong God,much like Oun..
    May Jesus have mercy on his soul

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