Pope Francis to Visit Crisis-Hit Lebanon in June

A Lebanese priest holds Lebanon’s flag while kneeling next to Pope Francis making a statement about the situation in Lebanon in the Vatican on Sept. 2, 2020. (AFP)
A Lebanese priest holds Lebanon’s flag while kneeling next to Pope Francis making a statement about the situation in Lebanon in the Vatican on Sept. 2, 2020. (AFP)
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Pope Francis to Visit Crisis-Hit Lebanon in June

A Lebanese priest holds Lebanon’s flag while kneeling next to Pope Francis making a statement about the situation in Lebanon in the Vatican on Sept. 2, 2020. (AFP)
A Lebanese priest holds Lebanon’s flag while kneeling next to Pope Francis making a statement about the situation in Lebanon in the Vatican on Sept. 2, 2020. (AFP)

Pope Francis is set to visit Lebanon in June, the country's presidency said on Tuesday, in a long-awaited trip that comes amid spiraling financial and political crises.

Lebanon, home to one of the largest Christian communities in the Middle East, has been gripped by an unprecedented economic downturn since 2019, with more than 80 percent of the population now living in poverty.

The pontiff, who has received Lebanon's president and prime minister in the Vatican in recent months, had previously promised to visit the country and repeatedly expressed concern over its worsening crises.

"Apostolic Envoy Joseph Spiteri informed President Michel Aoun that Pope Francis will visit Lebanon next June," a presidency statement said.

"The Lebanese people have been waiting for this visit for some time to express gratitude to his holiness for his support," the statement said, adding the exact date and agenda for the visit would be set later.

Lebanese took to social media to celebrate the announcement.

"A welcome to the pope of peace in the holy land," said one user.

Lebanon, a multi-confessional country of some six million people, is home to a Muslim majority but Christians account for around a third of the population.

Pope Francis' planned visit, coming after Lebanese parliamentary elections scheduled for May 15, would be the third by an incumbent pope to the country since the end of its 1975-1990 civil war.

The last trip in 2012 saw Pope Benedict XVI visit to appeal for peace, months after the start of the war in neighboring Syria.

Pope John Paul II visited in 1997, drawing one of the largest crowds Lebanon had ever seen.

"Lebanon is more than a country -- it is a message," he said at the time.

'New hope'

One social media user drew a parallel between the 1997 visit and the one expected in two months.

"Just as Pope John Paul II was a hope for Lebanon, Pope Francis too will definitely be a new hope," he wrote on Twitter.

"During elections, out with the old and in with the new," he said, referring to traditional party leaders who have been at the helm of Lebanese politics since the end of the civil war.

Pope Francis met last month with Lebanon's president, who is a Christian as dictated by the country's constitution which also divides seats in government and parliament along sectarian quotas.

In November, he received Lebanon's Muslim Prime Minister Najib Mikati in the Vatican.

"May God take Lebanon by the hand and tell it: 'Get up!'" the Vatican quoted Francis as saying during the meeting.

During a visit to Cyprus in December, Pope Francis met with the head of Lebanon's Maronite Church and expressed concern over the country's crises.

He also received the heads of Lebanon's top churches in July.

In August, he called on the international community to offer support to Lebanon, one year after an explosion in Beirut port killed more than 200 people and destroyed swathes of the capital.

Since 2019, the Lebanese currency, the pound, has lost more than 90 percent of its value against the US dollar on the black market.

The bankrupt Lebanese state has struggled to afford basic imports of fuel, food and medicine.

With no exit in sight from the country's crisis, Lebanon's population has fled the country en masse in a detrimental brain drain.



Italy's ITA Airways Resumes Flights to Libya's Tripoli after 10-year Gap

An Italian carrier Italia Trasporto Aereo (ITA Airways) plane takes off at Fiumicino airport in Rome, Italy, September 26, 2024. REUTERS/Remo Casilli/File Photo
An Italian carrier Italia Trasporto Aereo (ITA Airways) plane takes off at Fiumicino airport in Rome, Italy, September 26, 2024. REUTERS/Remo Casilli/File Photo
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Italy's ITA Airways Resumes Flights to Libya's Tripoli after 10-year Gap

An Italian carrier Italia Trasporto Aereo (ITA Airways) plane takes off at Fiumicino airport in Rome, Italy, September 26, 2024. REUTERS/Remo Casilli/File Photo
An Italian carrier Italia Trasporto Aereo (ITA Airways) plane takes off at Fiumicino airport in Rome, Italy, September 26, 2024. REUTERS/Remo Casilli/File Photo

Italy's ITA Airways resumed direct flights to Libya's Tripoli on Sunday, the first airline from a major west European nation to do so after a 10-year hiatus due to civil war in the north African country, ITA and Tripoli's transport minister said.

ITA said it would operate two direct flights a week from Rome's Fiumicino airport to Tripoli's Mitiga airport, Reuters reported.

“We are proud to inaugurate today our first direct commercial flight between Tripoli and Rome Fiumicino, strengthening commercial and cultural ties between Libya and Italy in support of bilateral relations between the two countries,” Andrea Benassi, ITA airways general manager, said in a statement.

Many international airlines have suspended flights in and out of Libya since the civil war in 2014 that spawned two rival administrations in east and west following the NATO-backed uprising that toppled Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

Some airlines resumed flights to Libya after security was restored when major fighting paused with a ceasefire in 2020. But efforts to end the political crisis have failed, with factions occasionally staging armed clashes and competing for control over economic resources.

The European Union still bans Libyan civil aviation from its airspace

The minister of transport in the government of national unity, Mohamed al-Shahoubi, said the resumption of ITA flights between Tripoli and Rome confirmed "the safety and security of our airspace and the eligibility of Libyan airports".

Shahoubi said at a ceremony marking the arrival of the ITA flight at Mitiga that Tripoli is ready "to grant ITA additional transport rights to connect Libyan airports with other destinations in European Union countries."