Berri congratulates Rai, Frangieh and Geagea on reconciliation

Speaker Nabih Berri contacted by phone Maronite Patriarch Bechara Boutros Rai, Marada leader Sleiman Frangieh and Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea.

Berri congratulated them on the reconciliation that took place in Bkerke.

On Wednesday, Geagea and Frangieh, who are Christian rivals from the civil war, shook hands with each other, marking a formal reconciliation to end more than four decades of enmity.
 
The two parties had armed groups during the conflict that battled against each other.
 
They shook hands with Rai and then with each other after several failed reconciliation attempts over the years.
 
Geagea has been accused of leading a raid in 1978 on the home of Frangieh's father, Tony Frangieh, a rival Maronite Christian chieftain, who was killed with his wife, daughter and others. Geagea has said he was wounded before reaching Frangieh's house, and did not take part himself.
 
This is the second rapprochement of recent years between civil war Maronite Christian rivals.
 
In January 2016 Geagea endorsed then presidential candidate Michel Aoun for the Lebanese presidency, ending his own rival candidacy for the position, which must be held by a Maronite Christian under Lebanon's sectarian power sharing system.
 
Geagea and Aoun, who fought each other in the 1975-90 civil war, have been on opposite sides of the political divide since Syrian forces withdrew from Lebanon in 2005.
 
President Aoun is a political ally of the Iran-backed Shiite group Hezbollah, whereas Geagea is a staunch opponent of the group.

Frangieh is a close ally of Syrian President and Hezbollah ally Bashar Assad.