BEIRUT, JULY 17 (ZENIT.org)

    In keeping with U.N.Resolution 520, Cardinal Nasrallah Sfeir, Maronite Patriarch of Lebanon, appealed to his compatriots to unite in opposing Syria's continued military presence in the land of cedars.

    "We claim a free, independent, and sovereign Lebanon, the Cardinal said, and denounced the effort to "conceal" the 1982 U.N. decision, which obliged the Syrian army to withdraw from Lebanon.

    With little time left before legislative elections, the lists of candidates do not seem to reflect the will of the people but, rather, foreign interests, the Patriarch of Maronite Christians lamented. ZE00071711

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