Maronite Patriarch Bechara Al-Rahi on Saturday said that the political class in Lebanon does not want to build a modern State that would revive the country's prestigious past, deploring the fact that sectarianism is replacing national allegiance.

"Religious citizenship is replacing the political one. This has become obvious through the sectarian management in ministries and public administrations as well as the rise of sectarian statelets, partisan leverage in regions, as well as political interference in public administrations and judicial appointments,” Al-Rahi said during his traditional Easter address to the Lebanese.

“All these things have weakened the State and made it lost its prestige, dismantled he hierarchy of the constitutional authorities and its independence, spread corruption, squandered public funds and dragged the country into danger on the economic and financial levels,” he added.

Al-Rahi called for political reform and the establishment of a new regional order that would bring peace, stressing the need to stop squandering, ending tax and customs evasion and refraining from burdening the Lebanese with further levies.

"While Lebanon needs to restore the international community's confidence, the political authority must work seriously, transparently and responsibly so as to confront our internal crises and speed up the necessary reforms," he added.