BEIRUT: The lack of a president and the sharp divide across the political spectrum has caused Lebanon to reach the peak of suffering, Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai said Sunday.

Distress in Lebanon has reached its higgest point as a result of the 11-month long presidential vacuum, the sharp rifts that have divided the country into two political camps and the breakdown of the civil society sector, Rai said in his sixth Easter message Sunday.

In a sermon delivered during Easter Sunday mass in Bkirki, the patriarch decried the economic condition in the country, noting that "one-third of the Lebanese people are currently living under the poverty line.”

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