CWN - The head of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church, an Eastern Catholic church in full communion with the Holy See, has told the Fides news agency that “foreign forces must stop supporting and arming” Islamist Syrian rebels.

The comments by Patriarch Grégoire III (Loutfi) Laham follow the formation of an alliance of six Islamist rebel groups. The new Islamic Front called for the creation of a “just Islamic state” in Syria, Agence France-Presse reported.

“These groups, even when they divide and fight with one another, they respond to the same logic: logics that have nothing to do with democracy and freedom,” the Patriarch commented.