According to AP, Reuters and Vatican News, Leo spoke to reporters aboard the papal plane on the 23rd local time as he flew back to Rome from Malabo, Equatorial Guinea. “As a pastor, I cannot support war,” he said, calling on all sides to seek solutions rooted in “a culture of peace,” not “hatred and division.”
Asked whether he supports regime change in Iran, the pope avoided a direct answer. “The issue is not whether there is regime change or not, but how we can promote the values we believe in without the deaths of so many innocent people,” he said. He added that since the first day of Israeli and U.S. attacks, “it is not even clear what regime exists now.”
Leo described the situation in Iran as “very complex.” On U.S.-Iran negotiations, he said one day Iran says yes and the United States says no, and the next day the reverse happens. “We don’t know where it is headed,” he said.
He said the war is causing direct suffering for Iranian civilians. “There is an entire innocent people of Iran suffering because of this war,” he said, urging all parties to promote peace, remove the threat of war and respect international law. Protecting innocent people is crucial, he said, but “in many places that has not happened.”
Reuters reported that Leo also condemned the killing of protesters in Iran and questions about recent executions. “I condemn every unjust act,” he said. “I condemn taking human life.” He added that if a regime or a state unjustly decides to take others’ lives, it should be condemned.
The pope also cited the death of a child on the Lebanon front. He said he keeps a photo of a Muslim child who welcomed him during a visit to Lebanon, and that the child recently died amid the war. AP reported the child was killed during the recent war between Israel and Hezbollah.
“We must be able to think about these human situations,” Leo said, again urging a dialogue-based solution and calling on countries to remove the threat of war and respect international law.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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