Sfeir expected to visit Damascus
Syria-Lebanon, Politics, 12/2/2000

In its issue to be published on Monday the " al-Osbo al-Arabi" weekly issued in Beirut said that the Maronite Patriarch Nasrullah Sfeir will head for Syria to take part in receiving Pope John Paul II who is scheduled to visit Syria next Spring.

Circles close to Sfeir said that Patriarch in his capacity as the chairman of the Catholic Church in the Middle East, refused to head for Israel to receive the Pope when he visited the holy place, in coordination with the Lebanese President Emil Lahoud on the ground that Lebanon is in state of hostility with Israel and it is not possible to visit it even if the visit has a religious mission.

These circles told the magazine that the situation for Syria is different on that it is a sisterly country and a neighbor for Lebanon, and its doors are opened for the Maronite Patriarch if he wants to meet the Pope on its lands.

These circles said that work had started seriously to prepare the atmosphere for the visit of Sfeir to Syria, its conditions and program which is expected to include a meeting with President Bashar al-Assad on the sideline of the Pope's visit. And on the occasion of the Papal visit Sfeir will surpass the question of the official invitation from Damascus which will circulate invitations on such occasions in order not to differentiate between one religious side and another.

In the same issue, the magazine says that President Bashar al-Assad is expected to meet within the few coming days with each of the Lebanese minister George Afram and Parliament member Nasib lahoud in the framework of meetings he holds with remarkable Lebanese figures.

The magazine added that the meeting which will be the most important is the one expected with former Lebanese President Amin al-Gemayel with whom no direct contacts were made with the Syrian officials since his coming back to Lebanon, but he received recently political signals saying that damascus is ready to receive him.

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