Rai Calls for Freeing Lebanon From 'De Facto Influence'

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rai speaks during Sunday’s mass in Bkirki. NNA
Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rai speaks during Sunday’s mass in Bkirki. NNA
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Rai Calls for Freeing Lebanon From 'De Facto Influence'

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rai speaks during Sunday’s mass in Bkirki. NNA
Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rai speaks during Sunday’s mass in Bkirki. NNA

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rai called on Lebanon’s political parties to support the government in implementing reforms and “free the state's decision from the influence and interference of de facto forces.”

During Sunday’s mass sermon in Bkirki, Rai said rival parties should cooperate to help the government achieve the required reforms.

“We all have the duty to distinguish between what is positive, and cooperate to promote it; and what is negative, to work together to correct it,” the patriarch stressed.

“This is what we expected from last Wednesday’s consultative meeting at the Presidential Palace, to study the draft economic rescue plan, before its submission to Parliament in its full form,” he added, referring to last week’s meeting that gathered the heads of political blocs to discuss the cabinet’s reform plan.

As he welcomed the move taken by the government, Rai emphasized that the government had local and external obligations.

“Internally, it has a duty to look into citizens’ urgent affairs and take swift measures to solve their financial, health, environmental, and living problems, in addition to unemployment, hunger, and poverty,” he said.

He continued: “Externally, the government should accelerate the completion of the reform plan and submit it to Parliament for approval, in order to be able to conduct constructive negotiations … especially with the International Monetary Fund.”

The Maronite patriarch finally urged the political parties to “encourage and support the government in achieving the required reforms” both locally and externally, and “free the state’s decision from the influence and interference of de facto forces and strengthen Lebanon’s relations with its surroundings and with the international community.”



Iraqi PM Slams Israel’s Complaint over Attacks by Iraqi Iran-Backed Militias

13 January 2023, Berlin: Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, prime minister of Iraq, makes remarks at a press conference after his talks with Chancellor Scholz at the Federal Chancellery. (dpa)
13 January 2023, Berlin: Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, prime minister of Iraq, makes remarks at a press conference after his talks with Chancellor Scholz at the Federal Chancellery. (dpa)
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Iraqi PM Slams Israel’s Complaint over Attacks by Iraqi Iran-Backed Militias

13 January 2023, Berlin: Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, prime minister of Iraq, makes remarks at a press conference after his talks with Chancellor Scholz at the Federal Chancellery. (dpa)
13 January 2023, Berlin: Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, prime minister of Iraq, makes remarks at a press conference after his talks with Chancellor Scholz at the Federal Chancellery. (dpa)

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani has dismissed an Israeli complaint to the UN Security Council about strikes by Iraq's Iran-backed Shiite militias on Israel as a "pretext and argument to attack Iraq" and to "expand the war in the region."

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar had earlier posted on X a letter to the Security Council saying that "Israel has the inherent right to self-defense ... and to take all necessary measures to protect itself and its citizens against the ongoing acts of hostilities by Iranian-backed militias in Iraq."

An umbrella group of Iraqi militias known as the "Islamic Resistance in Iraq" has regularly launched drone strikes on targets in Israel in recent months in support of its Hamas and Hezbollah allies in the ongoing wars in the Middle East.

Saar said some of the militias are part of the pro-Iran Popular Mobilization Forces — a coalition of mostly Shiite armed groups that's technically part of the Iraqi army although it operates in practice largely outside state control — and urged the Iraqi government to "take immediate action to halt and prevent these attacks."

Al-Sudani’s office said in a statement on Tuesday that Iraq has refused to enter into the regional conflict while "seeking to provide relief to the Palestinian and Lebanese people."