A release from the Holy See’s press office indicates that after the Jubilee audience at Saint Peter’s Basilica this Saturday, His Holiness lamented before more than 6,000 believers and pilgrims attending the ceremony that “the situation in Iran and Israel has seriously deteriorated.”

This is, he said, “very worrying news,” so that “at such a delicate moment, I wish to strongly renew an appeal to responsibility and reason.”

Israel launched, since early Friday, an escalation of air raids against several Iranian localities, including its capital, Tehran, and Tabriz, Khorramabad, Kermanshah, Boroujerd, and Natanz, causing serious damage and the death of military chiefs, nuclear scientists, and several civilians.

“No one should ever threaten the existence of another,” the Bishop of Rome said in the face of these events and emphasized that “All countries must support the cause of peace, initiating paths of reconciliation and promoting solutions that guarantee security and dignity for all.”

abo/iff/mem/ort