Lebanon’s Maronite Leader, Nasrallah Sfeir, on Monday called for solidarity among the nation’s Muslim and Christian youth and said the Taef Accord had not yet been fully implemented, reported the Daily Star.
The Taef Accord, a national reconciliation agreement that ended a 15-year civil war, was signed in the Saudi city in 1989, sponsored by Saudi Arabia, Morocco and Algeria.
Sfeir said he had begun the national dialogue and that “it should not stop.”
“The national dialogue is making progress,” he said, “but if young Muslims avoid young Christians, we shall have no true homeland.”
Instructing people on the virtues of “cooperating amongst ourselves,” Sfeir cited the example of lawyers, doctors and businesspeople who were able to work together despite having different faiths.
Sfeir blamed the current increase in emigration on the deteriorating economic situation, said the paper.
People “have always emigrated, but not to this extent,” he said, adding that the rising emigration numbers were due to the fact that “the Lebanese are always looking for better living conditions.”
“The main reason for the present emigration is that young people graduate with degrees and they cannot find work here. So they drift away.”
Blaming the economic crisis on “twisted politics,” he called on both Muslims and Christians to continue national dialogue. “Muslims should contact Christians, and vice versa, so the two sides can pull together for the country’s reconstruction.”
Asked about the possibility that an Islamic republic could be set up in Beirut, Sfeir called such an eventuality “unlikely,” adding that if the country “ever loses its Christian population, there would be no sense in it remaining independent.”
In an indirect call to free the ex-leader of the banned Lebanese Forces, Samir Geagea, Sfeir said authorities should prosecute all former militia leaders – Albawaba.com
