Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rai asserted on Sunday that the Lebanese Army is the sole legitimate force entrusted with defending Lebanon.
“It is not permissible to legislate or cover the presence of any illegal weapon alongside its own," he said during a Mass service in Bkirki.
Rai also criticized those who wanted the army to oppress the citizens in the streets.
"The army is part of the people and we cannot force it to confront them. The army is the army of democracy, and no one has the right to turn it into an army of oppressive measures," he noted.
Commenting on cutting-off some roads, Rai criticized these actions, urging the people of the revolution to "respect the right of citizens to move to meet their needs, and to avoid blocking public roads, and to replace them with organized demonstrations in public squares to express their legitimate demands, in accordance with the law and cultural principles."
Last week, protesters blocked roads in several areas over political inaction in the face of deepening poverty, but security forces managed to re-open some to traffic.
The country has been mired in economic crisis, which has brought surging unemployment and spiralling prices while the currency has plunged to a new low to the dollar on the black market.
Rai appealed to protesters "to unify their ranks, the harmony of their demands, and the independence of their movement, so that their revolution will be promising and constructive."
The Patriarch called on the political class in Lebanon to "rise above their personal interests and narrow calculations for the sake of the country and its people."
Last month, Rai called for an UN-sponsored international conference on Lebanon to protect the 1989 Taef Agreement and to enable the Lebanese State to regain its life, vitality, positive neutrality, impartiality, and its role as a stabilizing factor in the region.
On several occasions, the Patriarch had also demanded Lebanon’s neutrality from regional conflicts, saying Lebanon was open to all countries, East and West, except Israel.
