“Patriarch of Antioch and All the East condemns Lebanese government’s decision to dismiss Director General of Ministry of Industry”

In a statement issued by the media office of the Patriarch Al-Absi, the Patriarch of Antioch and All the East of the Melkite Roman Catholics, Youssef Al-Absi, and the Council of Bishops, General Superiors and Superior Generals in Lebanon called on “caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati to reconsider and immediately retract the decision to put the Director General of the Ministry of Industry, Danny Gideon, at disposal.” That the government has resigned.

Al-Absi expressed his condemnation of “taking such an unfair decision, which must be corrected against one of the members of the sect known as a bridge between the Lebanese components, on the one hand, and it is one of the six main sects, on the other hand, which at one time turned into a sect.” Their rights have been diminished, as a result of the settlements that have taken place at their expense since after the Taef Agreement.”

He pointed out that “we are now afraid that there will be an enforceable decision to exclude the members of the sect from the administrative and political decision-making centers, so that we notice a void in many Catholic centers, such as the Directorate of Roads and Buildings in the Ministry of Works and the Directorate of Lebanon Television,” adding, “It seems that there is a decision to remove clean hands.” And everyone who works conscientiously and transparently, like statesman Danny Gideon, who issued a statement a few days ago calling on citizens not to pay bribes in his ministry, and to abide by the laws in force.

He asked, “Can we know for whose benefit this unjust decision came, and who is the beneficiary of it?”