Leading Vatican official says war in the Middle East could cause world ‘being set ablaze’

A “preventative war” could make the whole world at “risk being set ablaze,” according to the Vatican’s chief diplomat.

Speaking about the current conflict in the Middle East waged by the United States and Israel against Iran, Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin said the erosion of international law is “truly worrying.”

“Justice has given way to force; the force of law has been replaced by the law of force, with the conviction that peace can arise only after the enemy has been annihilated,” the told Vatican News on Wednesday.

“With great sorrow, because the peoples of the Middle East—including the already fragile Christian communities—have once again been plunged into the horror of war, which brutally shatters human lives, brings destruction, and drags entire nations into spirals of violence with uncertain outcomes,” Parolin said.

When asked by Vatican News explicitly about the US and Israeli attack on Iran, the cardinal did not explicitly address the legitimacy or illegitimacy of the situation, but said peace and security “must be cultivated and pursued through the possibilities offered by diplomacy, especially diplomacy exercised within multilateral bodies, where states have the possibility of resolving conflicts in a bloodless and more just way.”

“When speaking of the causes of a war, it is complex to determine who is right and who is wrong. What is certain, however, is that war will always produce victims and destruction, as well as devastating effects on civilians,” Parolin said.

“For this reason, the Holy See prefers to recall the need to use all the instruments offered by diplomacy in order to resolve disputes among states. History has already taught us that only politics—through the hard work of negotiation and attention to balancing interests—can increase trust among peoples, promote development, and preserve peace,” he added.

The cardinal noted that after the Second World War, which caused about 60 million deaths, the founders of the United Nations “wanted to spare their children the horrors they themselves had experienced.”

“For this reason, in the UN Charter they sought to provide clear guidance on the management of conflicts,” he said.

Parolin was also asked about the massive street demonstrations of recent weeks, which were bloodily suppressed in Iran, and if their victims should “be forgotten.”

“Certainly not; this too has been a cause of deep concern,” he told Vatican News.

“The aspirations of peoples must be taken into consideration and guaranteed within the legal framework of a society that ensures everyone can freely and publicly express their ideas—and this also applies to the dear Iranian people,” the cardinal said.

“At the same time, we may ask ourselves whether anyone truly believes that the solution can come through the launching of missiles and bombs,” he added.