BEIRUT, Apr. 6, 01 (CWNews.com) - The leaders of the two major Muslim factions in Lebanon have joined together in rejecting calls by Christians for Syria to pull its troops out of the country.
"The demand by some that the Syrian army leave Lebanon is the cause for this state of division," said Sheikh Mohammad Rashid Kabbani, the highest Sunni Muslim religious authority. "We don't understand the insistence of some parties on this demand which has provoked a state of anxiety and instability in the country," he added in his Friday sermon.
The current debate over the Syrian presence in the country began when Cardinal Nasrallah Sfeir, the Maronite Catholic patriarch in Beirut, started a campaign to end Syria's hold on Lebanon during a trip to the US and Canada last month. Critics have accused the cardinal of seeking to partition the country between Christians and Muslims.
"Preserving national unity cannot be achieved through proposing slogans that lead to destabilizing national unity and division among Lebanese," Kabbani said. "The presence of the Syrian army in Lebanon is legitimate and necessary to protect Lebanon. We stress that this presence is a safety valve in confronting all the dangers," he added.
Syria has about 35,000 soldiers in Lebanon and influences all levels of Lebanese society, including political, economic, and security matters. Lebanon has been a virtual fiefdom to Syria since the end of the 1975-90 civil war.
Catholic World News Service - Daily News Briefs
6. april 2001