Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi reiterated on Sunday that rival officials should engage in dialogue to confront the security dangers and political crises gripping the country.

He said in his Sunday sermon during mass he held in Bkirki that he “prayed for stability in Lebanon, which on the second day of New Year fell in grief over the Haret Hreik bombing.” A suicide car bombing rocked the Haret Hreik district in Beirut's southern suburbs on Thursday, leaving scores of casualties. It came a week after a car bomb targeted former Finance Minister Mohammed Shatah in downtown Beirut, killing him and several others. [Link]