Sfeir: External Powers Push Lebanon to War

Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir accused certain factions of acting against Lebanon”s interests and following Syria”s trends.

 

Sfeir, in an interview with al-Akhbar daily, said: “some Lebanese factions behave against the national interest.

 

Some people follow Syria, not out of affection, but because it has a say and influence in Lebanon that could provide them with posts, gains and interests.”

 

He urged all the feuding Lebanese factions to “speed up” the election of Army Commander Gen. Michel Suleiman president and “rally around him.”

 

Sfeir said “some factions do not want him to be a strong president and try to impose conditions on him or hamper his election.”

 

He accused unidentified external powers of “pushing Lebanon to war that is rejected by the Lebanese. We know that they have domestic tools.”

 

He cautioned against a “campaign aimed at stripping the homeland of its institutions.”

 

“We need a president to rule the nation, not a president cuffed by conditions,” Sfeir noted.