Berri Slams Sfeir, Says: Good-Bye Lebanon if Sectarianism Not Abolished “Now”
Speaker Nabih Berri criticized Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir and warned that Lebanon would no longer exist if a committee for the Abolition of Sectarianism was not set up "right away."
"I don”t believe Lebanon would survive if a committee for the abolition of political sectarianism was not formed now," Berri said in an interview published Tuesday by pan-Arab Asharq al-Awsat.
He cautioned that Lebanon faces two enemies – "one within Lebanon called political sectarianism and Israel, the external enemy."
Berri said President Michel Suleiman was supportive of his offer to launch the committee.
Responding to remarks made by Sfeir that called for an end to political sectarianism emerging from the soul before the text, Berri said: "Thanks for this advice which is as old as the (French) mandate of Lebanon."
"We will take it upon ourselves to annul sectarianism from both the souls and texts at the same time," he added.