By FRANCESCO BONGARRÀ — arabnews.com — ROME: Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati will visit the Vatican on Wednesday to meet the Pope, the Ambassador of Lebanon to the Vatican, Dr. Farid Elias el Khazen, has announced. In an interview with the Italian newsagency Nova the diplomat said that Mikati’s visit “is necessary to discuss both bilateral issues and about some international themes.” The Vatican Press office has not confirmed the report. The Vatican Secretary for Relations with States, Msgr. Paul Richard Gallagher, is due to visit Lebanon before Christmas.

Pope Francis has repeatedly said he thinks a lot about Lebanon and its people. On Aug. 4, on the first anniversary of the huge blast in Beirut that killed 200 people and caused billions of dollars’ worth of damage, he said he had a “great” desire to visit Lebanon. On that occasion he said that many in Lebanon had lost “even the illusion of living,” and urged donors to help that country “on a path of resurrection.” He called for “concrete gestures, not just words.” “Dear Lebanese, my desire to come to visit you is great. And I will not tire of praying for you so that Lebanon returns to being a message of brotherhood, a message of peace for all of the Middle East,” Pope Francis had said.