Pope urges US and Iran to exercise self-restraint

VATICAN CITY: Pope Francis on Thursday urged the US and Iran to avoid escalation and pursue “dialogue and self-restraint” to avert a wider conflict in the Middle East.

The pope made his appeal, his first direct comment on the current crisis, in a yearly speech that has come to be known as his “State of the World” address to ambassadors accredited to the Vatican.

The 83-year-old Roman Catholic leader offered a mostly grim overview of 2019, speaking of wars, global warming, xenophobia toward migrants and the danger of nuclear weapons.

“Particularly troubling are the signals coming from the entire region following the heightening of tensions between Iran and the United States,” Francis told the diplomats from more than 180 states.

He said the tensions risked “compromising the gradual process of rebuilding in Iraq, as well as setting the groundwork for a vaster conflict that all of us would want to avert.”

“I therefore renew my appeal that all the interested parties avoid an escalation of the conflict and keep alive the flame of dialogue and self-restraint, in full respect of international law,” he said.

US President Donald Trump has suggested Iran was “standing down” after it fired missiles at US forces in Iraq on Wednesday, itself an act of retaliation for the Jan. 3 US strike that killed Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani.

Iran sent mixed signals on Thursday as tensions appeared to ease, with President Hassan Rouhani warning of a “very dangerous response” if the US makes “another mistake” and a senior commander vowing “harsher revenge.”

Rouhani warned that “if the US makes another mistake, it will receive a very dangerous response.”

He said that Iran would continue to cooperate with UN inspectors.

Senior Iranian military commanders struck a more defiant tone.

Abdollah Araghi, a member of Iran’s joint chiefs of staff, said the Revolutionary Guard “will impose a harsher revenge on the enemy in the near future.”

Gen. Ali Fadavi, the acting commander of the Guard, said the missile attack was “just one of the manifestations of our abilities.”

Separately, US officials said it was “highly likely” that an Iranian anti-aircraft missile downed a Ukrainian jetliner late on Tuesday, killing all 176 people on board. They suggested it could well have been a mistake.

Trump suggested he believed Iran was responsible for the shootdown but wouldn’t directly blame the Iranians. He dismissed Iran’s initial claim that it was a mechanical issue.

“Somebody could have made a mistake on the other side.” Trump said, noting the plane was flying in a “pretty rough neighborhood.”