Europe must impose peace on Israel / Chance must be given to Assad to complete reforms: Patriarch Laham http://www.abna.ir/data.asp?lang=3&Id=271935

Patriarch of the Church of Antioch, Gregory III Laham, on Thursday said the international community is called to give President Bashar Assad a chance to complete reforms he already set off. Laham, currently on a pastoral and official tour in Venezuela, said the situation in Syria was critical, and cautioned against Syria's disintegration. "If Syria was fragmented -God forbids- then this shall follow suit in the entire Arab region," he said.

Pertaining to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, he said there could not be any talk about peace if the Palestinian cause was no solved. He saw that Europe, which founded the state of Israel, must impose peace on Israel itself and recognize the Palestinian state. Laham, who is also the spiritual leader of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church, later attended a banquet hosted by the Egyptian ambassador in his honor. The Patriarch did not fail to sternly deplore the recent massacre against Egyptian Copts.

The Syrian ambassador to Venezuela later hosted a dinner banquet in honor of Laham and the accompanying delegation, in presence of 12 ambassadors from the Arab world and South America as well as a panel of Members of the Venezuelan Parliament of Syrian origin.