Maronite Church Urges 'Restraint', End Lebanon Foreign Interference

 Naharnet.com/February 16, 2005

 Posted on February 16, 2005 at 2:30 pm

Maronite bishops Wednesday called on Syria to stop interfering in Lebanon in a bid to save the country from civil war after former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri's assassination.
"An end to foreign interference and the tutelage imposed (on Lebanon) will ensure that the nation will not be drawn back into divisions and fighting," the bishops said in a statement, without explicitly naming Syria.

The head of the Maronite Church, Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir, convened an emergency meeting to discuss the repercussions of Monday's bombing, in which Hariri and 14 other people were killed in Beirut.

"National unity is the key guarantee in these tragic circumstances," said the bishops, urging everyone to observe "maximum restraint".

Lebanon's anti-Syrian opposition leaders accused the Syrian and Lebanese regimes of being responsible for Hariri's violent death, which has stirred a harrowing reminder of the ravage caused by the civil war.

The Maronite bishops, who represent the largest Christian community in Lebanon, exhorted politicians to refrain from accusing one another of treason or foreign allegiances in the fall-out of the assassination.

Sfeir is a champion of Lebanese independence, who has frequently called for Beirut and Damascus to establish diplomatic relations so the countries can act as equals.(AFP)