Lebanon's Maronite church lays out roadmap to end political crisis

For millions of Lebanese, progress has been stymied by foreign interference and corrupt politicians

Lebanese Maronite Patriarch Bechara Boutros Al-Rai speaks after meeting with Lebanon's President Michel Aoun at the presidential palace in Baabda, Lebanon July 15, 2020. Reuters

Lebanon’s influential Maronite church is pressing ahead with a campaign to shield the country against the spillover of regional conflicts.

The initiative is being launched despite opposition from the Iran-backed Lebanese armed group Hezbollah.

The lobbying effort builds on Patriarch Bechara Rai’s call for a UN-sponsored conference to “save” Lebanon from its worst crisis since the end of the civil war in the early 90’s.

The small Mediterranean nation has been without a government since the massive explosion that shook Beirut last August, which deepened the country’s economic and financial crisis.

Almost seven months later, the country’s leaders continue to quarrel over the upcoming government’s makeup, against a backdrop of rising tensions between Iran and its regional adversaries, led by the US.

Their failure to break the deadlock, despite the economic urgency, justified the call for an international conference, the patriarch told thousands of supporters who gathered this weekend at Bkirki, the seat of the Maronite church.

"The patriarch's initiative reflects the will of the people," former minister Sejaan Azzi, told The National. Mr Azzi, an advisor to the patriarch, said Bkirki was currently looking into the formation of a non-partisan working group to rally support for the initiative, both domestically and overseas.

“The patriarch’s initiative laid out a roadmap to steer Lebanon out of its crisis… It is now up to the parties that share Bkirki’s views to take action,” Mr Azzi argued.

Few, however, expect the initiative to yield immediate results in a country where Hezbollah and its allies dominate the political scene while their rivals remain deeply divided.

Appeal for international support 

Former MP Mustapha Allouch, a member of Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri’s Future Movement, says his party shared the patriarch’s vision. Mr Allouch wants Lebanon to embrace neutrality in line with the 2012 Baabda Declaration.

The declaration, which garnered the support of Mr Hariri and his allies at the time, resulted from arduous negotiations between Lebanon’s rival camps to distance the country from regional conflicts.

Almost a decade later, however, Hezbollah, which the US classifies as a terrorist organisation, continues to fight alongside Syrian regime forces, while dictating Lebanon’s foreign policy.

The Iran-backed party’s grip over the government has since strengthened, with the election of an allied president and a pro-Hezbollah majority in parliament, further undermining Lebanon’s ties with traditional Arab allies who have long provided the country with financial support.

Mr Allouch, who welcomed the patriarch’s initiative, said his appeal for an international conference to support Lebanon should be the subject of discussions. One aim would be to steer clear of a confrontation with Hezbollah.

The Iran-backed party has criticised calls to internationalise the Lebanese crisis, labelling them a violation of sovereignty and an invitation to potential occupation and future conflicts.

But Mr Allouch says Lebanon’s crisis has been already internationalised, as demonstrated by the French-led initiative to end the political deadlock. The initiative unveiled by President Emanuel Macron shortly after the Beirut blast that killed over 200 people and destroyed thousands of properties across the capital, called for the formation of a cabinet of experts. The non-partisan cabinet initiative would be committed to the implementation of reforms in exchange for international financial support.

Mr Macron’s appeal, however, has fallen on deaf ears as Lebanon’s political leaders traded accusations over derailing the French initiative, which Mr Azzi says appears to be pending the outcome of talks between Iran and the West.

The political paralysis that continues to engulf Lebanon, however, does not signal the failure of Patriarch Rai's campaign, former MP Fares Souaid told The National.

Mr Souaid, a former prominent member of the now-defunct March 14 alliance that led the campaign for Syria’s withdrawal from Lebanon in 2005, likened Bkirki’s current initiative to the early days of the movement spearheaded by the church in 2000.

The movement, then led by late Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir following the withdrawal of Israeli troops from South Lebanon, eventually gave birth to the broad March 14 coalition that emerged following Prime Minister Rafik Hariri’s assassination.

With US and international backing, the alliance eventually succeeded in forcing the withdrawal of Syria’s forces from Lebanon, marking the end of decades of Syrian hegemony.

Like the movement led by his predecessor, Patriarch Rai's current initiative lays the groundwork for a political movement that aims to preserve Lebanon as a multicultural entity, Mr Souaid told The National.

Mr Souaid invited the country’s Muslim leaders to join hands with the patriarch to give the initiative, which has the Taef Accord at heart, a national dimension.

Mr Souaid said the country’s leaders must now choose between upholding the agreement that ended the civil war and cemented Lebanon’s role as model of pluralism or to seek another compromise deal with Hezbollah.