The main part of US Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s visit to the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem was spent in the Catholic part of the temple. This was stated by the archpriest of the Armenian Church in Jerusalem, Father Emmanuel Atajanyan, in an interview with Armenian News-NEWS.am Monday.

“As is known, the Holy Sepulcher is divided into three parts: Armenian, Greek, and Catholic. As can be seen from the picture, members of the three congregations participated in the meeting,” said Fr. Atajanyan.

According to him, Marco Rubio visited the Holy Sepulcher early Sunday morning at 6:30am, and spent a significant part of the visit in the Catholic part of the temple, but there was no long private meeting with the leader of any church.

“The Armenians, as the rightful owners of the Holy Sepulcher, were present, received the Secretary of State and saw him off. [Chancellor Rev.] Fr. Aghan [Gogchyan of the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem] had conversations with the people accompanying Marco Rubio, but I do not have any details about that. For example, when [then US President] Joe Biden had came to Bethlehem, the Greek Patriarch set up a chair for him and had a long conversation, and [Reverend] Father Koryoun [Baghdasaryan] had handed him a letter. In the case of Marco Rubio, nothing like that happened, everything happened on foot," noted Father Emmanuel Atajanyan.