BEIRUT: U.S. President Barack Obama will work on protecting Lebanon from regional turmoil, Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai said Thursday after meeting the U.S. president in Washington.
“Obama promised us to work on protecting Lebanon from all the repercussions of what is happening in the region,” Rai told the LBCI television station. “We felt that Obama is concerned about the region and the danger posed by ISIS and wants to support the region and minorities through an action plan he is working on.”
Rai and a delegation of Eastern church patriarchs met Obama after attending a three-day conference in Washington on protecting the Christian presence in the Levant in the face of mounting threats posed to the community by ISIS and other takfiri groups in Syria and Iraq.