Hezbollah welcomes Pope Benedict XVI to Lebanon

Hezbollah welcomed Monday the planned visit of Catholic Pope Benedict XVI to Lebanon later this month and said his party would participate in all phases of his visit. “We welcomed the historical visit by the late Pope [Jean Paul II] and of course the visit by this pope to Lebanon and we will deal with it as a historic visit just like all Muslims and Christians in Lebanon,” Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah told Almayadeen TV station in a rare face-to-face interview. Pope Jean Paul visited Lebanon in May 1997 in what was considered as a historical visit to the country by the head of the Catholic Church. His successor, Pope Benedict XVI, will visit Lebanon for three days starting Sept. 14. (daily star)