BEIRUT: Lebanon’s Maronite Christian church says its former patriarch, Cardinal Nasrallah Butros Sfeir, has died after several days in hospital. He was 98.
Sfeir, an outspoken and feisty personality, served as spiritual leader of Lebanon’s largest Christian community through some of the worst days of the 1975-90 civil war.
He then played a key role in shaping the country’s postwar politics as one of the most prominent Christian leaders in the mostly Muslim region.
The former patriarch passed away early Sunday at a Beirut hospital. The church issued a statement saying “The Maronite church is orphaned and Lebanon is in sadness.”
Cardinal Bechara Rai, who succeed Sfeir in 2011, called on churches to ring their bells and hold prayers for the late leader.
Lebanon’s former Maronite Christian patriarch Sfeir dies
Lebanon’s former Maronite Christian patriarch Sfeir dies
Top ex-British Army officers urge complete arms embargo on Israel
- Evidence of war crimes in Gaza is ‘so well documented and compelling’
- Appeal made in letter to UK PM ‘to avoid the charge of complicity’
LONDON: Four former senior members of the British Army have urged the government to impose a complete arms embargo on Israel, The Times reported.
They also called for a ban on any British involvement in Israeli-owned or Israeli-supported arms manufacturers.
The appeal came in a letter to Prime Minister Keir Starmer, in which the signatories said that amid Gaza’s fragile ceasefire, “now is not the time to return to business as usual with the Israeli government.” More severe sanctions must be placed on Israel, they said.
The letter was signed by John Deverell, a retired brigadier general who served for more than 30 years, and Sir Andrew Graham, a retired lieutenant general and former director general of the Defence Academy of the UK. Deverell was defense attache in Saudi Arabia and Yemen at the time of the Sept. 11 attacks.
Maj. Gen Peter Currie and Maj. Gen. Charlie Herbert, a former senior British Army commander in Afghanistan, are also signatories.
The army is set to decide next year whether to award the British subsidiary of Elbit Systems, a major weapons company, a £2 billion ($2.7 billion) training contract for soldiers, aimed at future preparedness.
Elbit Systems UK is part of a consortium of defense companies bidding for the substantial 15-year contract offered by the British Army. Raytheon UK leads the competing consortium.
The signatories strongly pushed back against a claim that Israel’s military had followed similar protocols to the British Army during the war on Gaza.
They challenged remarks by a senior UK Ministry of Defence source who said: “Israel appears to have thorough and rigorous processes for the conduct of hostilities and targeting, that in many respects resemble our own.”
They said British military practices have clear differences with Israel’s ones, including the latter’s indiscriminate firing of munitions that led to “exceptionally disproportionate and avoidable civilian fatalities, and widespread destruction of civilian infrastructure.”
They added that the UK should ban Israeli officers from attending British military courses, and prevent UK defense officials from taking part in visits to Israel.
The letter also highlighted the issue of famine in Gaza, noting that more than 100 humanitarian organizations have expressed grave concerns over conditions in the war-torn Palestinian enclave.
Israel’s military had frequently targeted hospitals, schools and other sites essential for civilian survival, they said, citing humanitarian groups.
The signatories also referred to high-profile reports of Palestinian detainees facing torture in Israeli custody.
Evidence of Israeli war crimes is “so well documented and compelling that the British government should cut all military collaboration with Israel forthwith, to avoid the charge of complicity,” they said.
The group also called on the UK government to prevent the use of Royal Air Force or British-contracted aircraft in any Israeli military activities. Britain should also suspend any transfer of military technology to Israel, they said.
