Pope Leo said on Tuesday that threats against the population of Iran are \u201cunacceptable,\u201d in an unusual appeal hours after United States (US) President Donald Trump said \u201ca whole civilisation will die tonight\u201d in a social media post that shocked world leaders.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday, as we all know, there was this threat against the entire people of Iran, and this is truly unacceptable,\u201d said the pope, who has emerged as an outspoken critic of the Iran war.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are certainly issues here of international law, but even more than that, it is a moral question for the good of the world\u2018s people,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
It is rare for the pope, who leads 1.4 billion Catholics around the world, to respond directly to a world leader.<\/p>\n
Leo, who is also known for choosing his words carefully, has been ramping up his criticism of the US-Israeli war against Iran in recent weeks.<\/p>\n
The pope made his first direct appeal to Trump last week, urging him to find an \u201coff-ramp\u201d to end the conflict.<\/p>\n
Speaking to journalists outside his residence in Castel Gandolfo, Italy, on Tuesday, Leo called on citizens across the world to contact their political representatives and ask them to bring the expanding regional conflict to an end.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople want peace,\u201d he said. \u201cI would invite the citizens of all the countries involved to contact the authorities, political leaders, congressmen to ask them to work for peace.\u201d<\/p>\n
Leo also said that many people have referred to the conflict as an \u201cunjust war\u201d, using terminology to indicate hostilities that go against the Catholic Church\u2019s strong pro-life teachings.<\/p>\n
He urged people to \u201cremember especially the innocent children, the elderly, the sick, so many people who have already become or will become victims of this continued warfare\u201d.<\/p>\n
The pope also said that attacks on civilian infrastructure \u201care against international law\u201d.<\/p>\n
Trump has threatened to destroy every bridge and power plant in Iran.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, international leaders are reacting to Trump\u2019s latest social media post:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
–Reuters–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":21855,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[26],"class_list":["post-31057","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"The Pope also said that attacks on civilian infrastructure \u201care against international law\u201d.","published_date":"","news_description":"The Pope also said that attacks on civilian infrastructure \u201care against international law\u201d.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/31057","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/31057\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31058,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/31057\/revisions\/31058"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=31057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}