Pope appeals to US, Iran ‘Avoid an escalation of conflict, keep alive flame of dialogue and self-restraint’
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Pope Francis on Thursday urged the United States and Iran to avoid escalation and pursue “dialogue and self-restraint” to avert a wider conflict in the Middle East.
The Pope made his appeal, his first direct comment on the current crisis, in a yearly speech that has come to be known as his “State of the World” address to ambassadors accredited to the Vatican.
Speaking for nearly 50 minutes in the Vatican’s frescoed Sala Regia, the 83-year-old Roman Catholic leader offered a mostly grim overview of 2019, speaking of wars, global warming, xenophobia towards migrants and the danger of nuclear weapons.
“Particularly troubling are the signals coming from the entire region following the heightening of tensions between Iran and the United States,” Francis told the diplomats from more than 180 states.
He said the tensions risked “compromising the gradual
process of rebuilding in Iraq, as well as setting the groundwork for a vaster conflict that all of us would want to avert.”
“I therefore renew my appeal that all the interested parties avoid an escalation of the conflict and keep alive the flame of dialogue and self-restraint, in full respect of international law,” he said.
US President Donald Trump has suggested Iran was “standing down” after it fired missiles at US forces in Iraq on Wednesday, itself an act of retaliation for the Jan. 3 US strike that killed Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani.
“Our human family is scarred and wounded by a succession of increasingly destructive wars that especially affect the poor and those most vulnerable,” Francis said.
“Sadly, the New Year does not seem to be marked by encouraging signs, as much as by heightened tensions and acts of violence,” he said.
Recent tensions could likely make it impossible for Francis to visit Iraq, which he has said he would like to do this year.
Wars and conflicts have led to an exodus of Christians from Iraq and some other countries in the Middle East.
Iraq’s small Christian population of several hundred thousand suffered particular hardships when Islamic State controlled large parts of the country, but have recovered freedoms since the jihadists were pushed out.
Iraq is home to many different eastern rite churches, both Catholic and Orthodox.
Francis said he still hoped to make a visit this year to mostly Christian South Sudan, which is emerging from civil war.
The pope wove his speech around the foreign trips he made in 2019, which included a visit to Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. There, he became the first pontiff to set foot on the Arabian peninsula, home to Islam’s holiest sites.
Speaking of climate change, he said it was sad that the urgency to tackle it “seems not to have been grasped by international politics.”
He said last December’s UN conference in Spain raised “serious concern about the will of the international community to confront” the issue.
Curbing Trump war power
In the US, American lawmakers concerned about rushing to war with Iran adopted a measure Thursday aimed at reining in Trump’s ability to take military action against the Islamic republic.
The resolution was introduced by Democrats after Trump’s order to kill an Iranian commander and retaliatory missile strikes by Tehran dramatically escalated tensions and raised fears of a devastating war between the two foes.
The mostly symbolic but politically charged vote, 224 to 194, was largely along party lines, with three members of Trump’s Republican Party joining Democrats in approving the measure demanding the president not engage in military action against Iran unless authorized by Congress.
Among them was Matt Gaetz, one of Trump’s staunchest supporters in Congress who noted in a floor speech that the measure did not criticize Trump, but said that “engaging in another forever war in the Middle East would be the wrong decision.”
“If the members of our armed services have the courage to go and fight and die in these wars, as Congress we ought to have the courage to vote for them or against them,” Gaetz said.
As lawmakers launched a scalding day-long debate over presidential authority, Trump insisted he needs no one’s blessing to launch attacks, essentially scorning existing legal requirements for consulting with Congress.
“I don’t have to,” Trump said when asked whether he would seek congressional approval for more military action against Iran.
“And you shouldn’t have to,” he added, “because you have to make splitsecond decisions sometimes.”
Trump signaled Wednesday he was stepping back from the brink of war with Iran after a US drone strike that killed commander Qasem Soleimani was followed by Iranian missile volleys against bases housing American forces in Iraq.
Scrambling to calm Iran
In Europe, European nations will seek on Friday to find ways to guide the US and Iran away from confrontation knowing that a miscalculation from either side could leave the bloc facing a war and a serious nuclear proliferation crisis at its doorstep. European Union (EU) foreign ministers, in a rare emergency meeting, may avoid any tough diplomatic response for now. Washington and Tehran backed off from intensified conflict following the US killing of an Iranian general, and Tehran’s retaliatory missile strikes avoided military casualties.
“Iran’s desire to prevent the crisis from escalating has bought us some time, it has the effect of cooling this down just a little,” a senior EU diplomat said.
But the simmering tensions have highlighted Europe’s struggles to influence either side and play a mediating role with powerhouses Britain, France and Germany desperately trying to pressure Iran to stick to a 2015 nuclear pact and pullback from further escalation.
They also want to convince Trump, who on Wednesday called on them to join him in withdrawing from the nuclear agreement, that they are toughminded allies who will not be deceived by Tehran.
With Baghdad also caught between the crossfire of Washington and Tehran, there are growing concerns that the USled coalition fighting Islamic State militants could be weakened, or even forced out of Iraq, something that the European powers see as crucial to prevent for their own security interests.
“We need to coordinate and maximize the effect everybody has in trying to de-escalate what the Iranians do, but it’s the same for the Americans. What’s most worrying is a miscalculation,” said a French diplomatic source. (With reports from AFP and Reuters)