“Hatred is rising” — Urgent Papal call for ceasefire in Iran war | Shalom World News
Pope Leo on Tuesday, March 24, gave voice to a deep and growing anguish over the darkening tide of hostility in the expanding Iran war, renewing his urgent plea for a ceasefire as reports swirl of a mounting US military presence in the Middle East. With profound but restraint sorrow, Leo lamented that “hatred is increasing, and the violence is getting worse and worse.” His words carried the weight of a shepherd watching a wounded world unravel. Standing before journalists as he departed his residence in Castel Gandolfo, Italy, the pope’s appeal rose not in anger, but in hope: “I want to renew the appeal for a ceasefire, to work for peace, but not with weapons - rather through dialogue, truly seeking a solution for everyone.” Behind the headlines, he pointed to the human cost—lives uprooted, futures shattered. “There are more than a million displaced people and many dead,” he said, echoing the silent …More
"Der Hass nimmt zu, und die Gewalt wird immer schlimmer", sagt der erste US-Papst der Geschichte.
msn.com/…eo-beklagt-zunehmende- …
Angesichts von mehr als einer Million Vertriebenen und vielen Toten ruft er alle Verantwortlichen auf, die Probleme durch Dialog statt mit Waffen zu lösen. Hintergrund der Äußerungen sind Berichte, wonach die USA die Entsendung Tausender Soldaten in den Nahen Osten planen.
U.S. Circulates Iran Peace Plan While Sending Troops to the Middle East
The 2,000 paratroopers heading to the region may give President Trump more leverage in negotiations, but they also leave him with the option of doubling down on military force.
nytimes.com/…03/25/us/politics/iran-peace-plan- …
Nearly a month into the war, the United States and Iran struggled to find a way to begin negotiations over peace terms on Wednesday, with each insisting it had the upper hand in the conflict and that the other was desperate for a way out.
The United States circulated a 15-point peace plan, diplomats said, demanding what would amount to a complete termination of Iran’s nuclear program and sharp limits on the reach and size of their missile arsenal. It bore strong resemblance to the U.S. demands in February, during negotiations that collapsed when the United States and Israel struck Iran on Feb. 28.
But the Iranian government, in a statement issued through state television, declared it would not end the conflict unless the United States paid war reparations and recognized “Iran’s exercise of sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz,” suggesting it would continue to decide which ships pass through the narrow strait and which remained bottled up, unable to deliver oil or fertilizer.
The messages between the two countries were being passed by Pakistan, which was trying to assemble peace talks in the capital of Islamabad, proposing dates as soon as this weekend. But neither Iran nor the United States would confirm such discussions, each wanting to avoid seeming the overeager party in a conflict where each wants to demonstrate it holds the upper hand.
The White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, ran through a series of military metrics to make the case that Iran's forces have been crushed — its navy sunk, its missiles destroyed before they could be launched — and said “that’s why you are beginning to see the regime look for an exit ramp.” But she later warned that Iran’s surviving leaders would bring more destruction to the country “if they fail to understand that they have been defeated militarily.”
Referring to the breakdown in negotiations in Geneva at the end of February that led to President Trump’s decision to attack the country, along with Israeli forces, she warned that “their last miscalculation cost them their senior leadership, their navy, their air force and their air defense system.” At the same time, the United States was preparing to activate 2,000 paratroopers who could be quickly deployed to the region, for possible additional military action — perhaps seizing the Kharg Island oil port, perhaps keeping the strait open — if talks never get off the ground, or fail.
Those forces may give the president more leverage in his negotiations but also leave him with the option of doubling down on military force. Their presence could also fuel Iranian resentment that Mr. Trump opened negotiations with them twice in the past eight months and then ordered the bombing of nuclear plants and the broader attack on the country.
Iran, in any case, did not sound like a defeated nation.
While the Pentagon cites the inventory of destroyed Iranian military equipment, Tehran’s surviving military leadership has found new powers of control over the 21-mile-wide strait and was boasting about them. Even without traditional military arms, former Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken told an audience at the Harvard Kennedy School on Tuesday night that Iran had the “ability to leverage the Strait of Hormuz in ways that are profoundly disruptive and give it an asymmetric advantage in the region and indeed around the world.” It will now have little interest in giving that up.
Diplomats in the gulf and South Asia said they expected Iran to bounce between defiance and some opening to eventual talks with the United States. They said Iranian officials wanted to conduct that conversation with Vice President JD Vance, who has made no secret of his skepticism about lengthy American ventures abroad.
“They believe that JD Vance represents the more isolationist, anti-war wing of President Trump’s MAGA base,” said Karim Sadjadpour, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
But Mr. Trump himself has been highly inconsistent. On Tuesday he welcomed what he called an oil-related “gift” to the United States from Iran, which he would not describe. It appeared he was referring to a small number of oil tankers that made it through the strait in recent days. “It was a very significant prize, and they gave it to us, and they said they were going to give it,” he said.
At the same time Mr. Trump insisted that “this war has been won,” arguing that only “the fake news” was trying to keep it going.
Other U.S. officials did not act like it was won, or that a cease-fire was imminent. Nor did Mr. Trump explain why Mr. Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the combination of Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, and Steve Witkoff, the Middle East envoy, were all deeply engaged in negotiations.
If the administration is trying to lure Iran into talks, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is not making it easier. He kept up his warlike warnings, saying on Tuesday, “We see ourselves as part of this negotiation as well. We negotiate with bombs.”
The Iranians were equally chest-thumping. White House officials, including Ms. Leavitt, would not discuss whether Mr. Vance would travel to Islamabad to meet a senior Iranian official — likely Abbas Araghchi, the foreign minister — but the demands issued by Tehran seemed likely to, at a minimum, slow that prospect. Another key player may well be the speaker of Iran’s parliament, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf. But to travel, both men would need assurances that they are not on the list of diplomatic targets, as Israel assassinates Iranian leaders.
Ms. Leavitt insisted that “productive” talks were underway but would give no details, or say who was involved.
Various versions of the 15-point plan were circulating in Washington and other capitals, with some variation on details. But the core of the American proposal was exactly what Washington demanded before the war began: An end to all enrichment of uranium and the movement of the existing stockpiles of nuclear fuel out of the country, starting with a 970-pound cache of near bomb-grade uranium, enriched to 60 percent purity. The document also calls for free passage in the strait.
But it makes no mention of regime change in Iran, of protection for protesters or for the holding of real elections in coming months or years. Mr. Trump’s military buildup near Iran began after Iran killed thousands of anti-government protesters in January, and the president declared on social media that “HELP IS ON ITS WAY.” But if he signs an agreement with no protections for them, it could be seen as an abandonment of his promise to the Iranian people, who on Feb. 28 he urged to rise up and overthrow their government when the fighting ends.
David E. Sanger covers the Trump administration and a range of national security issues. He has been a Times journalist for more than four decades and has written four books on foreign policy and national security challenges.
" Hintergrund der Äußerungen sind Berichte, wonach die USA die Entsendung Tausender Soldaten in den Nahen Osten planen."
Jetzt wird es sich zeigen, welchen Einfluss der Papst auf das Weltgeschehen noch hat.
Viele Prominente drängten sich in seine Audienzen und er gewährte vielen seine Aufmerksamkeit , darf er jetzt auch auf ihre Unterstützung in seinen Friedensbemühungen bauen?