Maronite Patriarch Beshara Boutros Rai continued his pastoral visit to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan on Wednesday for the third day, where he visited the site of Baptism at the Jordan River, accompanied by Jordanian Minister of Tourism, Lina Annab, and a delegation.
Then Rai headed to the construction site of "St. Maroun" Church on the banks of the Jordan River where he led prayers inside a tent set up by the Royal Court on the site ground. Rai had already laid the foundation stone for the church back in 2012.
In a statement, he stressed keenness on preserving Jerusalem as a holy site for all religions, noting that all the UN resolutions since 1948 have been related to Jerusalem remaining an open city to all religions. “In 1951 the Israeli Knesset adopted a decision to abide by this resolution, yet today it breaches it with regard to the Holy Land,” he added.
“We stand by you in rejection to this decision and what it entails of oppression to any person that wishes to visit the Holy Land,” he stated, adding that “we must insist that the Security Council issues a resolution to nullify the decision of the Knesset for the sake of humanity as a whole."
The patriarch said that “we believe that all the wars taking place in the Middle East are born from the Palestinian cause which they do not want to resolve so that it remains a burning flame that can be transported here and there.”