Lebanese President Michel Aoun will visit the Vatican and meet with Pope Francis next week.

 

Aoun’s visit, planned for March 21, follows a visit by a papal delegation, not including the pope, to Lebanon in early February. Aoun previously visited the Vatican in March 2017.

 

Next week’s visit was announced by Farid Elias Khazen, Lebanese ambassador to the Holy See.

 

“The attention of the Holy See, like that of the whole world, is currently focused on the war in Ukraine,” but the Vatican remains engaged with Lebanese affairs “at all levels,” he said.

 

Lebanon will conduct parliamentary elections in May. More than 1,000 people have applied to run as candidates.

 

The country has a complex political system that guarantees high-profile positions to people depending on their sect.

 

The president must be a Maronite Christian, the prime minister must be a Sunni Muslim, and the Parliament speaker must be a Shiite Muslim.

 

The sectarian system is a result of Lebanon’s long history of inter-religious tensions, which erupted into a civil war in the 1980s.