During the Lebanese civil war (1975–90), he refused to take sides, repeating his distaste for violence, while denouncing the atrocities carried out by various Lebanese factions and the excesses of foreign intervention. His mantra was taken through the long war from a saying attributed to Renaissance humanist thinker Erasmus, "to be Guelfe amongst the Gibelins, and Gibelins amongst the Guelfes", entrenched factions in Italy's 13th century civil wars. Amongst the Lebanese leadership, he maintained a close friendship with Raymond Eddé, Kamal Jumblatt, Musa al-Sadr and the successive heads of the Maronite Church.[6]