![Pope Francis on his way back to Rome [GETTY]](https://www.newarab.com/sites/default/files/media/images/67543DD2-8FCA-468D-9D00-1A3C93E5EC43.jpg "Pope Francis on his way back to Rome [GETTY]")
Lebanon could be on next Middle East tour for Pope Francis
Lebanon could be on next Middle East tour for Pope Francis
On the way back to Rome from Iraq, Pope Francis hinted at reporters on board that he might travel to Lebanon in the future
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Pope Francis promised the Lebanese Patriarch he would come [Getty]
On the way back from his four-day visit to Iraq, Pope Francis told reporters that it's possible he could visit Lebanon the next time he travels to Middle East.
"Lebanon is in crisis, and has a weakness resulting from diversity but [also] has the strength of its people," Sky News Arabia reported him saying.
He told reporters that Lebanese Maronite Patriarch Mar Bechara Boutros Al-Rai had asked him to add a Beirut leg to his Iraq trip but that he had declined, thinking it would be like tossing the country "crumbs" given all of Lebanon's current problems.
"But I wrote him a letter and promised I'd go to Lebanon," he added, without saying when.
On the plane, Pope Francis told reporters that he got "a lot more tired than during other ones" on his Iraqi trip, adding that he wasn't sure if he would have to slow down his usual whirlwind pace on future trips.
The next likely travel is to Budapest, Hungary, to close out an international Eucharistic conference in September, with a possible side trip to Bratislava, Slovakia, he said.
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