Tehran's cardinal assesses international situation (Fides)

A month after the Iran–Israel war ceasefire, Tehran’s cardinal offered his assessment of the international situation.

“We have moved from a bipolar world—West/Soviet Union—to a monopolized world, dominated by the hegemony of the so-called ‘free world’ in the face of a malignant threat,” said Cardinal Dominique Joseph Mathieu, OFM Conv.

“Israel and Iran accuse each other of being at risk of annihilation,” he continued. “One attacks Jewish Zionism, which oppresses Muslim Palestinians; the other attacks the mullahs’ regime, which threatens Israel’s very existence with its nuclear program. The main source of conflict lies in the ideology that demonizes the other and its supposed ambitions.”

Cardinal Mathieu added:

A premeditated preventive war, justified by a supposedly imminent threat, which could unilaterally impose peace through capitulation or the overthrow of the regime, is not a solution. State terrorism, with its infiltration, violence, or support for certain countries, parties, or ethnic groups, does not lead to peace.