BEIRUT: Syrian President Bashar Assad rejected accusations Monday that he was seeking an alliance of minorities against Syria’s Sunni majority during a meeting with a Lebanese Christian delegation.

“Assad assured us that he is not with the minority alliance in Syria but with the unity of a renewed Arab identity that provide guarantees to everyone in Syria,” an official from the delegation of the Assembly of Eastern Christians told The Daily Star.

The meeting took place in the midst of spreading pro-democracy protests across Syria and days after Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai expressed fears that the toppling of the Assad regime may drive the Christians away from the Middle East.

A statement from SANA, the state news agency, said that the delegation’s members “[rejected the use of] religions as a tool to fragment countries.”

Headquartered in Beirut, the Assembly of Eastern Christians, which was established in 2010, aims to support the permanent presence of Christians in the Middle East and works to strengthen their role in the region.

“Our visit aimed to reiterate to Assad that Christians support dialogue and reforms,” said the official.

According to the official, there are no threats against Christians in Syria.

“We refuse to take part in violent riots and we refuse to be a Trojan horse for any side in the conflict,” the official added.

However, the president of the Assembly of Eastern Christians, Maronite Bishop Samir Mazloum, who is a close aide to Rai, was not present at the meeting in Damascus. “Bishop Mazloum had to attend a meeting in Germany, but he was represented through the deputy president Bishop Louka Khoury,” the official explained.

As the criticism of Rai’s remarks intensifies, Monday’s visit by a group of 10 Lebanese clerics and laymen had its detractors.

Ibrahim Mrad, who heads the Syriac Union Party, said Lebanon’s religious figures were erring by supporting a president who is violently crushing Syrians protesters.

“It’s a shame today for Lebanese Christian leaders to visit a leader who has been isolated both locally and internationally,” Mrad told The Daily Star.

Earlier this month, Rai said the international community should have given Assad more time to adopt reforms, and raised fears that the alternative to the current government in Damascus might be a radical Islamic one.

In an indirect but clear response to Rai’s statements, Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea said that the Assad regime itself is a radical.

“It’s a radical regime that is killing its own citizens on every corner and every street in Syria,” said Geagea Sunday during the annual Mass in tribute to LF martyrs.

Holding talks with the Syrian regime to win the protection of the Christians while also making statements to spread fear among Lebanese Christians are outdated tactics that were used in Lebanon, Mrad said.

“These attempts are only to tell the Lebanese Christians that there is a radical Sunni group that would threaten the presence of Christians in the country and the region,” Mrad added.

But Mrad denied that all Christians backed the regime in Syria.

“Many of our community’s members in Damascus, Qamishli and Hassakeh have taken to the streets with their Syrian brothers against the Assad regime,” said Mrad.

“With the exception of one case, which is the Syriac bishop of Aleppo, the community is taking part in all of the Local Coordination Committees,” said Mrad in reference to a leading network of on-the-ground activists.

Mrad added that the Christians would only be safe in a democratic country governed by the rule of law and without “dictatorships.”

“Dictatorships have marginalized Christians for a long time,” said Mrad, adding that continuing to support Assad might backfire against the Christians if the opposition ousts the government.

“Everyone knows that the regime … whether in a month or two or in a year will fall,” said Mrad. “So why visit him?”