Top Lebanon Christian leader slams Hezbollah and its arms

Lebanon’s top Chrisitian spiritual leader Maronite Patriarch Bechara Boutros Rai slammed Hezbollah during his Sunday sermon at the Patriarchate’s summer seat in Diman

“We cannot pretend to be preserving sovereignty while keeping the border crossings wide open, and we cannot support legitimacy while accepting the multiplicity of weapons and the contempt of institutions,” Rai said. We cannot accept “the creation of an army belonging to a foreign state, as a top official of that state has confessed,” Rai added .

He noted that the country needs to be freed from liars who take advantage of the people’s kindness with sweet talk while they are corrupt, looting state money, and evading taxes, which led to the state’s collapse and the people suffering from poverty.

Hezbollah reportedly controls all the Lebanese borders, the legal and illegal ones and uses the illegal border crossings to smuggle the subsidized vital products such as fuel, flour and medicine to neighboring Syria making huge profits while at the same time creating shortages in Lebanon.

As result of fuel shortage Hezbollah imported fuel from Iran . Hezbollah is also now making huge profits from the sale of the Iranian fuel even though it initially promised to provide it at cost to institutions .

Because Hezbollah controls all the border crossings with its huge arms arsenal , it pays no import duties while all the other Lebanese businesses have to pay import duties on everything they import

Hezbollah’s allegiance to Iran has also distanced the Arab Gulf contraries from Lebanon. They were the only countries who helped Lebanon financially, but are reportedly no longer interested in helping Lebanon as long as Hezbollah controls it.

In the past people in Lebanon admired Hezbollah and treated it as a resistance force against Israeli occupation. But Israel withdrew its forces from Lebanon 21 years ago and Hezbollah has since pointed its guns against the Lebanese people and is now protecting the corrupt politicians who have looted the state and the people . Now the majority of the Lebanese consider Hezbollah as an occupying illegitimate force and blame it for the collapse of the economy .

Patriarch Rai, who is vey highly respected in Lebanon by all people of all religions have come under attack recently by a Shiite clerk who is closely associated with Hezbollah , who called the Patriarch ‘ a “Shepard of cows or “cowboy” for criticizing Hezbollah . The name Rai in Arabic means Shepard , Hezbollah did not comment at all on that which was understood to mean that it supported its cleric’s statement .

Lebanon president Michel Aoun has reportedly provided Hezbollah with a Christian political cover ever since he signed a memorandum of understanding with the party in 2006 . Hezbollah has since initiated a war with Israel that killed 300 Lebanese mostly civilians and destroyed Lebanon;’s infrastructure . Hezbollah has since took its fighters to Syria to help its dictator Bashar al Assad in crushing the Syrian revolution that resulted in the killing of over 360,000 according to the recent UN reports . As a result of Aoun’s act , Hezbollah now controls the presidency the parliament and the government of Lebanon