Speaker drums up humanitarian message in Lebanon visit

Belgian House of Representatives speaker André Flahaut arrived in Beirut yesterday on an official visit expected to last several days at the invitation of his Lebanese counterpart, Nabih Berri, Now reports.  Among his first engagements was a visit to patriarch cardinal Bechara Boutros al-Rai at the Maronite Patriarchate seat in Bkirki, where they discussed the Syrian crisis. “What is going on in Syria interests both Belgium and Europe,” the National News Agency quoted Flahaut as saying yesterday. He went on to stress the importance of putting an end to the “massacres” that are taking place in Syria, and called on the international community to “participate in [the providing of] humanitarian aid for [Syrian] civilians”.