Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi is “ready to support the Lebanese cause,” Maronite church leader Bechara al-Rai assured Sunday on the sidelines of a meeting in Cairo with the Egyptian head of state.

“We are sorry that Lebanon has become isolated in the world, and the Egyptian president is ready to support the Lebanese cause,” the Maronite patriarch told the Lebanese channel MTV.

“The solutions are not in the hands of the Lebanese alone, but also the Arabs and the international community,” he continued.

“We talked about internal Lebanese causes and President Sisi said he was sorry for the situation Lebanon is in. I told him that the country is sick and that we need a remedy for theevil it suffers from, namely the non-implementation of the Taif Agreement. The solution is the declaration of Lebanon's neutrality,” Rai said.

Lebanon’s neutrality is an appeal Rai regularly brandishes, while Iran-backed Hezbollah, a heavyweight in Lebanese politics, remains involved in regional conflicts. Hezbollah’s activities are among the reasons that prompted several Gulf monarchies last October to sever diplomatic relations with Beirut. In this context, Rai welcomed the “mediation of Egypt with the Gulf countries,” while an Arab roadmap transmitted by Kuwait to Lebanon proposes a settlement of the crisis, provided, among other things, that Hezbollah is disarmed.

“We discussed [with Sisi] the issue of Hezbollah’s weapons. If there was a defense strategy, part of the problem would have been solved,” Rai said. The establishment of an official defense strategy in Lebanon divides the political class between supporters and opponents of Hezbollah.

The head of the Maronite church also thanked Sisi for the “air bridge” set up by Egypt to help Lebanon after the deadly explosion in the port of Beirut on Aug. 4, 2020. This involves regular shipments of humanitarian aid by air from Egypt to Lebanon. Cairo is also at the heart of a project to import gas via Syria, as part of a US initiative, in an attempt to revive Lebanon’s electricity sector, which has been in tatters for decades.