Maronite patriarch to visit Damascus

In its most recent issue, the Lebanese magazine al-Shera said Maronite Patriarch Cardinal Nasrullah Sfeir will soon visit Damascus, as asserted by political circles which follow up on the course of contacts currently being made between the Maronite patriarchy and Damascus.

According to these circles, the magazine said, one of the results of Patriarch Sfeir's visit to the French capital, held several weeks ago, was that the Cardinal has been convinced by the statements made to him by French President Jacques Chirac on the need to build natural and good relations between the Maronite Patriarchy and Syrian officials because Syria, as Chirac asserted to Sfeir, plays a key and efficient role on the Lebanese arena and in the regional and international arenas alike.

Chirac added to Sfeir that France, Europe and the US acknowledge such a key Syrian role, the magazine added. The sources continued that Sfeir agreed with Chirac that the former will visit Damascus shortly. The same sources expected that Col. Bashar al-Assad, son of the Syrian president, will visit the Maronite Patriarchy within the coming few days to congratulate Patriarch Sfeir on Easter and to extend an invitation to him to visit Damascus to meet with high-ranking Syrian officials, on top of which is President Hafez al-Assad.

The sources asserted that former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri played a big role in the contacts and meetings held between the Maronite patriarchy and Syrian and French officials, noting that Patriarch Sfeir's visit to Damascus will have very important results on Lebanese political conditions as well as several suspending files which Bkerki suffers from, foremost being the arrest of Samir Geagea and the file of Lt. Gen. Michael Aoun.