Head of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis has declared his position on the brewing tensions in the Middle East following the assassination of Iranian army General, Qassem Soleimani by the US government.
Trump had issued a strong warning to Iran, threatening to hit 52 Iranian sites “very hard” if the Middle East country attacked Americans or United States assets.
Trump’s threat came after Iran earlier said it had identified 32 US sites to strike in retaliation for the killing of Soleimani.
The Pope called for dialogue and restraint while speaking at the Sunday Angelus prayer at the Vatican .
He warned that war will only bring death and destruction.
He spoke of a terrible air of tension that could now be felt in many parts of the world.
“I call on all sides to keep the flame of dialogue and self-restraint alight and ward off the shadow of hostility,” he said.
“War only brings death and destruction.”
Meanwhile Iraq’s Foreign Ministry has summoned the US ambassador to the country following repeated US airstrikes on Iraqi soil that killed Maj. General Qassem Soleimani and al-Muahndis.
The foreign ministry, was quoted by Al Jazeera as saying that the act was “a flagrant breach of Iraq’s sovereignty and of all international laws and norms that regulate relations between countries and prohibit the use of their lands to carry out attacks on neighbouring countries.”
Meanwhile, Pope Francis has declared his position on the killing of Soleimani and his deputy and the resultant tensions in the Middle East.
Soleimani, the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ elite Quds Force, was killed by a US airstrike on Friday.
