Pope Leo calls out Trump’s Iran rhetoric before last-minute ceasefire emerges
Hours before President Donald Trump announced a two-week delay in attacking Iran, Pope Leo issued a rare and pointed condemnation, denouncing Trump's Tuesday morning threat against the country as "truly unacceptable."
Speaking to journalists outside his residence in Castel Gandolfo, Italy, the leader of the world's 1.4 billion Catholics spoke out against the escalating war and called for an immediate end to the conflict.
"Today, as we all know, there has also been this threat against the entire people of Iran, and this is truly unacceptable," the pope said. "There are certainly issues of international law here, but even more so a moral issue for the good of the whole entire population."
The comments were seemingly in reference to one of Trump's earlier Truth Social posts, where he wrote, "A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will... God Bless the Great People of Iran!"
TRUMP VOWS US WILL STRIKE IRAN’S POWER PLANTS, BRIDGES IF STRAIT OF HORMUZ IS NOT REOPENED
Trump later said that, based on conversations with Pakistani leaders, he would delay the "bombing and attack of Iran" for two weeks.
The postponement is subject to the Islamic Republic of Iran agreeing to "the COMPLETE, IMMEDIATE, and SAFE OPENING of the Strait of Hormuz," the president wrote in a Truth Social post.
He added the administration received a 10-point proposal from Iran, and officials "believe it is a workable basis on which to negotiate."
Pope Leo had warned that attacks on civilian infrastructure are "against international law" and serve as a "sign of the hatred, the division [and] the destruction the human being is capable of."
The pontiff went on to describe the conflict as a war many are calling "unjust" that is "not resolving anything."
"In fact, we have a worldwide economic crisis, energy crisis situation in the Middle East of great instability, which is only provoking more hatred throughout the world," he said. "So come back to the table. Let's talk let's look for solutions in a peaceful way."
The pope also took the unusual step of calling on everyday citizens to "contact the authorities — political leaders, congressmen — to ask them to work for peace and to reject war always."
A clash between the sovereign of the Vatican City State and world leaders is highly unusual, though the pope made his first direct appeal to Trump last week, urging him to find an "off-ramp" to end the war with Iran, according to a report from Reuters.
Pope Leo on Tuesday pleaded for the protection of the innocent, urging the world to remember "the children, the elderly, the sick," who he said "have already become, or will become, victims of this continued warfare."