Rahi sends 3 messages after Beirut clashes
Bechara Boutros Rahi condemned the recent violence in Beirut, sending different messages to the Lebanese.
The Lebanese cleric stressed “support for the role of the army”, praising its success in “confining the sites of clashes”, saying this “showed that the legitimate institution is stronger than any other force”.
Rahi also refused to return to what he called “the sectarian army, compromises of satisfaction and fabrication of files and Holocaust rams,” calling for “convergence to cut off the backbone of sedition.” He stressed that “no party may resort to threats and violence and the erection of tribal barriers on the roads.”
Bechara sent his first message to Lebanon’s youth saying: “Express your will in the next parliamentary elections,” he said in another message to the government, saying, “The cabinet must meet and take the necessary decisions, and every minister must respect authority and exercise his authority in the name of the people and not the powerful.”
The third letter was for the judiciary; Bechara said: “Let us liberate the judiciary and strengthen its independence in accordance with the principle of separation of powers because no one is above the law and the judiciary,” he said, referring to the MPs whose testimony before the judicial investigator in the Beirut port explosion, Judge Tarek Bitar, called for their appearance for questioning.
Last Thursday, clashes and violence killed seven people in Beirut, amid rising tensions over an investigation into last year’s Beirut port explosion. Supporters of Hezbollah and Amal gathered to demand the dismissal of Judge Bitar.
