World leaders react to US-Iran ceasefire agreement
World leaders reacted after President Donald Trump announced a two-week ceasefire with Iran amid growing global calls for diplomacy.
Hours after President Donald Trump announced a two-week ceasefire between the United States and Iran amid calls for diplomacy around the world, Pope Leo XIV praised what he called a “truce” between the two countries and invited the world to a prayer vigil scheduled for April 11.
“Following the great tension of the last few hours for the Middle East and the whole world, I welcome with satisfaction and as a sign of hope for life the announcement of an immediate two-week ceasefire,” the pope, who oversees more than a billion Catholics around the world, wrote on X. “Only by returning to negotiations can we end the war.”
The American-born pope, who has emerged as an outspoken critic of war, called on the world to join him in “this moment of prayerful and delicate diplomacy, in the hope that this willingness for dialogue will also be a means of resolving other conflict situations around the world.”
The Pope announced that a wake will be held at St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City on April 11th at 6pm local time.
In another previous post on April 8, the Pope said that God can redeem all human experiences.
“Even suffering can be a path to holiness if we live with the passion of the Lord,” the post reads. “Grace, which converts and transforms lives, strengthens us in every trial. It does not lead us to distant ideals, but to an encounter with God made man in love.”
‘Unacceptable’: Pope’s unusual rebuke
A day earlier, hours after President Trump threatened to wipe out “an entire civilization” if the United States did not meet its demands, the pope said in an unusual appeal that threats against the Iranian people were “unacceptable.”
“As we all know, today there is such a threat against the entire Iranian people, and this is truly unacceptable,” the Pope said in a post about X.
Natalie Neisa Alland is a senior reporter at USA TODAY. Contact her at nalund@usatoday.com and follow her at X @nataliealund.
