UNIFIL arranged a funeral for its dead Irish soldier at Beirut airport before transferring him to his country.
Maronite Patriarch Beshara Al-Rai called on the Lebanese state to seize “every illicit and illegal weapon and to implement resolution 1701 in letter and spirit”, the day after the killing of an Irish soldier among the international forces operating in the south of Lebanon “UNIFIL”, among the ongoing investigations that have not yet come to the arrest of any of those involved in the shooting at the international mechanism.
Yesterday, Sunday, UNIFIL held a funeral for Irish soldier Sean Rooney at Rafic Hariri Airport in Beirut, in a special ceremony, in coordination with the Lebanese Army Command Ireland.
The Lebanese Army’s Intelligence Directorate continues its investigation into the incident and security sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that they are continuing intense investigations into the incident, denying it led to anyone’s arrest.
Parallel to international pressure and appeals to the responsibility of the culprits, Patriarch Al-Rahi said yesterday during Sunday mass: “We were deeply wounded by the assassination of the Irish soldier 3 days ago, who was a member of the international forces in the south of Lebanon”.
Al-Rahi said, “This tragic incident, which distorts the face of Lebanon, requires a transparent Lebanese and international investigation that reveals the truth and delivers justice. The time has come, indeed the time has come, for the State to get its hands on every illegal and illegitimate weapon and implement Resolution 1701 in letter and spirit; Because its application so far is selective, arbitrary and limited by the decision of the forces of fact, while the state bites its wound and limits its capabilities in favor of others.
Al-Rai said: “Everything that is happening at the presidential, governmental, parliamentary and military levels in the south and on the borders, and the erosion of the head and body of state, confirms the need to renew our call for a positive and active neutrality, and for having held an international conference on Lebanon that addresses issues that restore its privilege and identity, so that it does not lose what we have built”. , made him the owner of a message and a model in the East and in the West, according to what Pope Saint John Paul II affirmed.
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