Walid Jumblatt criticised al-Rahi's assessment on the grounds that "Lebanon cannot remain hostage to regional conflicts", and denied that regime change in Syria was posing a threat to Christians in the country. In an interview with Reuters on 4 March 2012, al-Rahi said: "All regimes in the Arab world have Islam as a state religion, except for Syria. It stands out for not saying it is an Islamic state...The closest thing to democracy [in the Arab world] is Syria." Visit to the Holy Land On 26 May 2014, the patriarch decided to join Pope Francis on parts of the pontifical three-day Holy Land pilgrimage. The Maronite patriarch arrived late Sunday in Jerusalem after accompanying Francis in the West Bank, but he departed from the parts of the Catholic leader's itinerary that involved meetings with Israeli officials. After visiting a monastery outside the city on his way to Jaffa, al-Rahi joined the Pope again in the afternoon for Mass at Jerusalem's Cenacle. The patriarch then returned to the West Bank for a visit to Beit Sahour, toured the north, the Galilee region, Nazareth, Acre and Haifa, where many of the country's Arab Christian minority live. The visit was criticized at home. The patriarch maintained that he was misunderstood and that his journey was celebrating the roots of Christianity in the region. Visit to Saudi Arabia In November 2017, the patriarch visited Saudi Arabia to meet King Salman, to become the first Maronite Patriarch to visit the kingdom. Calls for international conference On 27 February 2021, al-Rahi addressed in a rally the political and economic crisis in Lebanon, in which he said: He also called for an international conference to solve Lebanese issues: He repeated this call in 2022, during a conversation with Thomas Heine-Geldern, head of Aid to the Church in Need. "We are calling for a special international conference for Lebanon under the purview of the UN. We must also settle the issue of Palestinian and Syrian refugees. Finally, we must declare the positive neutrality of Lebanon. Without this, there is no solution. These are the conditions for the ‘message country’, as it was called by Pope John Paul II, to continue to bear its witness." Domestic politics Given the sectarian nature of Lebanese politics, the head of the Maronite Church is generally cautious about making statements of a political nature, but has been known to criticise the domestic political