As the world braces for Iran to retaliate for the assassination of a Hamas leader who was staying in the Iranian capital, the Vatican Secretary of State has pleaded with the country’s new president not to escalate the Middle East conflict. Source: OSV News.
Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state, spoke by telephone with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian yesterday, according to Matteo Bruni, director of the Vatican press office.
The cardinal, Mr Bruni said, “expressed the Holy See’s serious concern about what is happening in the Middle East, reiterating the need to avoid in any way the widening of the very serious ongoing conflict and opting instead for dialogue, negotiation and peace”.
Cardinal Parolin congratulated Mr Pezeshkian on his election in July, Mr Bruni said, and also discussed “issues of common concern” with him.
Iran’s official news agency, IRNA, had quoted Mr Pezeshkian as saying the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, who was in Tehran for Mr Pezeshkian’s inauguration, was a “big mistake” and “will not go unanswered.” Israel was assumed to have been behind the killing.
Pope Francis also has been pleading for caution and restraint since the death of Haniyeh and Israel’s acknowledged killing a day earlier of Hezbollah commander Fouad Shukur in an airstrike in a Beirut suburb.
“I am following with great concern what is taking place in the Middle East, and I hope that the conflict, already terribly bloody and violent, will not spread even further,” the Pope said on August 4.
Three days later, the Pope said he wanted to “reiterate my appeal to all the parties involved so that the conflict does not spread and there may be an immediate cease-fire on all fronts, starting with Gaza, where the humanitarian situation is dire and unsustainable”.
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Important Vatican cardinal asks Iranian president for restraint (By Cindy Wooden, CNS via OSV News)
