RELIGIOUS NEWS AGENCY (REDNA) – Lebanon’s top Christian cleric called for state control over weapons on Sunday.
It comes as some days ago a deadly clash happened between Christian villagers and the heavily armed group Hezbollah over an overturned truck of ammunition.
New Arab reported a Hezbollah member and a Christian resident were killed in Wednesday’s exchange of fire in the village of Kahaleh, near Beirut, which began when a Hezbollah truck carrying ammunition turned over while driving through the area.
It was the deadliest confrontation between Hezbollah and Lebanese.
In his sermon on Sunday, cleric Patriarch Bechara Boutros al-Rai called for “all parties” and other elements of the country “to unite under the banner of the state, especially regarding the use of weapons.”
Lebanon has been suffering a four-year-long financial collapse that has marked its most destabilising episode since the 1975-90 civil war. It was caused by decades of corruption and profligate spending by ruling politicians.