Geagea: Maronite Church is Lebanon's backbone

President of the Lebanese Forces Party Samir Geagea has said that Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) leader MP Michel Aoun criticism of his party had nothing to do with defending the Maronite Church. He instead blamed the diatribe on two main reasons: "First is the growing role of the Lebanese Forces on both the national and regional level, and second is to hide the failure of Aoun's party in their cabinet duties." Geagea said in a press interview on Monday: "The positions of the FPM towards the Maronite Church is acknowledged by all Lebanese, as this party has never showed any care for this institution, especially as a large part of its members are not religious. This party has previously offended both the Church ad its patriarch, while it is well known that Lebanese Forces has the most political power in Lebanon and really belongs to Bkirki (the Church's location), so it is clear that their campaign against us has nothing to do with their respect for the Church." Geagea stressed that the Maronite Church is "Lebanon's backbone, by the admission of both Muslims and Christians, but we feel that the Patriarch's support for the Syrian regime has came in contrast with our history and our beliefs. I have nothing more to say about this issue." When asked about the expected meeting between the Lebanese Christian political leaders in Bkirki planned for April 3, Geagea answered: "I think this meeting is going to be cancelled, as I can see from the media war held by the National Liberation Trend against us". Geagea said his relations with the Palestinian groups in Lebanon were limited to "the leaders' level". "The leaders stressed on more than one occasion that Palestinians were guests in Lebanon, and the guest must respect the sovereignty of the hosts, so I expect the Palestinians to follow the thoughts of their leaders."