At Lebanon multi-religious conference, calls to repeal ban on contacts with Israelis

The conference, titled “On Reclaiming Neutrality in Lebanon,” was held on Saturday in the central Lebanese town of Harissa under the auspices of Maronite Patriarch Bechara Al-Ra’i. The top cleric’s representative, like other participants, urged the country to leave the Iran-dominated regional axis and assume a more neutral foreign policy stance, which they insisted was essential to Lebanese identity.

“What is required now is not to introduce the idea of neutrality into the Lebanese system, but to restore the neutrality that the Lebanese have lost due to their increasing foreign affiliations,” said Samir Mazloum, the patriarch’s representative at the gathering.