The American-born pontiff has said \u201cviolence can never lead to justice\u201d<\/p>\n
Pope Leo XIV has spoken against the ongoing US-Israeli war on Iran and called for an immediate ceasefire. Stability can never be achieved through violence, the Chicago-born pontiff has warned.
\nThe Pope delivered his speech as part of a weekly Angelus prayer in St. Peter\u2019s Square in the Vatican on Sunday, where he decried two weeks of \u201chorrific violence\u201d suffered by the people of the Middle East.
\n\u201cI renew my prayerful closeness to all who have lost loved ones in the attacks, which have struck schools, hospitals and residential areas,\u201d Leo said.
\nOn the first day of the military campaign, a suspected US Tomahawk cruise missile razed the Shajarah Tayyebeh girls\u2019 school, killing at least 175 people, most of them children, in one of the most tragic incidents of the conflict.<\/p>\n
Read more<\/p>\n
Who bombed Iran\u2019s Minab elementary school?<\/p>\n
The pontiff called on all sides of the conflict to stop the hostilities and reopen\u00a0\u201cpaths of dialogue.\u201d He also called the developments in Lebanon \u201ca cause of great concern.\u201d
\nIsrael has launched airstrikes against Lebanon over the past weeks in retaliation for Hezbollah\u2019s rocket strikes on the Jewish state. The militant movement, in turn, was responding to the assassination of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in US-Israeli strikes.
\n\u201cViolence can never lead to justice, stability and peace for which the peoples are waiting,\u201d Leo warned. During a visit to a Rome parish later on Sunday, the pontiff also denounced the idea that disputes could be resolved through war as \u201cabsurd.\u201d<\/p>\n
Read more<\/p>\n
No peace until US moves out of Persian Gulf \u2013 senior Iranian official<\/p>\n
US President Donald Trump reportedly rejected efforts by Washington\u2019s Middle Eastern allies to start negotiations with Tehran. \u201cThere will be no deal with Iran except UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER,\u201d\u00a0he wrote on Truth Social in early March.
\nTehran has, in turn, maintained that there could be no peace until the US withdraws its forces from the Middle East. Mohsen Rezaee, a member of the advisory board of Iran\u2019s supreme leader, called the American presence in the region \u201cthe main cause of insecurity over the past 50 years.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The American-born pontiff has said \u201cviolence can never lead to justice\u201d Pope Leo XIV has spoken against the ongoing US-Israeli war on Iran and called for an immediate ceasefire. Stability…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31221,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","category-environment","category-politics"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t