Pope brings peace message to Lebanon as Mideast burns

LEBANON: Pope Benedict XVI left Rome on Friday for a three-day visit to Lebanon, a Middle Eastern country riven by sectarian tensions as fighting rages next door in Syria.

“Lebanon awaits the visit of peace,” said a front-page headline of a Beirut paper, referring to the tiny eastern Mediterranean country that is nearly 65 percent Muslim -- Sunni and Shiite -- and 35 percent Christian.

That echoed the words of the pope himself, who said on Sunday his “trip to Lebanon and, by extension, to the whole of the Middle East, is taking place under the sign of peace. “The commitment to dialogue and reconciliation must be the priority for all parties involved,” he said. The heavily Christian area just north of Beirut, which runs from the Mediterranean Sea up into the mountains, is where the pope will spend his two nights in Lebanon.

Anticipation there was palpable on Friday morning.

“It’s brilliant,” said Liliane Khalife, 50. “Everybody is so excited. This visit is a blessing for Lebanon.” Benedict, who left a rainy Rome on an Alitalia flight, is due to arrive at Rafiq Hariri International Airport just before 2:00 pm (1100 GMT) to sunny skies and pleasant temperatures.

He will be received by President Michel Sleiman, the only Christian head of state in the Middle East, and a 21-gun salute, as church bells ring out around the country.

On the highway into Beirut, he will pass through the capital’s southern suburbs, a bastion of the militant Shiite movement Hezbollah.

AFP