BEIRUT: Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri and Lebanese Shiite cleric Sayyed Ali Fadlallah highlighted during a telephone conversation the importance of calls to combat strife, a statement by Fadlallah’s media office said Friday.

The two discussed general developments and welcomed calls for preventing strife in Lebanon in general and between Muslims in particular, the statement said.

Delivering a speech to commemorate the seventh anniversary of the assassination of his father former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, the Future Movement head promised to prevent the outbreak of Sunni-Shiite strife in Lebanon in wake of ongoing unrest in neighboring Syria.