Lebanese President Michel Aoun said that the Levant was a “unique example that embodies Lebanon’s spiritual and cultural richness, stressing that it must not be emptied of its components.”
Speaking at the inauguration of the Caritas Middle East and North Africa Conference on Wednesday, the president said: “There is no doubt that one of the major objectives of all the incidents that have unfolded over the past years is to make the societies of our Levant racist, unilateral, conflicting, and belligerent.”
He warned that the forced migration of some components, the attempts to change the demographics, the partition of Palestine and the displacement of its people… “all pave the way for a new Levant that is different from the religious, social and cultural diversity that characterizes it.”
“This is what we should reject and resist, with all our determination and tenacity,” he stressed.
“The land of the Levant must not be emptied of its people; the cradle of the Christ, the Road to Calvary and the Holy Sepulcher cannot be without Christians, just as Al-Quds (Jerusalem) and Al-Aqsa Mosque cannot be without Muslims, for no water can flow if its springs dry out,” he added.
Addressing the same event, Maronite Patriarch Beshara Boutros Rai urged the international community to dissociate the political solution in Syria from the return of Syrian refugees to their homeland.
“The international community must separate the political solution from the refugees’ repatriation. There is a pressing necessity that the displaced Syrians return to their country,” Rai said.
“We should not forget the economic, social, developmental, cultural and, security impact created by 1.5 million displaced people from Syria, as well as half a million Palestinian refugees... This constitutes half the Lebanese population,” he stressed.
Rai said Lebanon must be protected from the dangers of “this exhausting presence, with one-third of its population below the poverty level and 40 percent of its youth facing unemployment.”
