Conflict and War

The deadline given by US president Donald Trump for the “opening” by Iran of the Straits of Hormuz is approaching. "Tuesday, 8:00 P.M. Eastern Time!" will not mark the end of the world. But it will be the end of the Middle East as we know it. Trump delivered his ultimatum in the most unorthodox way for a world leader. The paragraph below contains very strong language, which we do not usually allow on commonspace.eu, but given the fact that they were written by the president of the United States in a public post, we are making an exception. Trump says: "Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!! Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell - JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah. President DONALD J. TRUMP". Iran have made it clear that if their oil and water infrastructure is attacked, they will reciprocate by attacking similar infrastructure in neighbouring GCC countries. Given the dependence of these states on energy resources for their economies, and on desalination plants for their water, within days we will see a total change of reality in the Middle East. Sane people all over the world are calling for de-escalation and a return to negotiations. This war should never have started, but now it must stop. This is not a game and not a movie. "Tuesday, 8:00 P.M. Eastern Time!" must not become a deadline leading to a tragic end for the Middle East. It can and should mark the moment of a new beginning for the region. (This is a comment by the editorial team of commonspace.eu).

The leader of the Catholic Church, Pope Leo XIV, has called on world leaders to lay down their weapons and choose “encounter” over domination. “Let those who have weapons lay them down!”, the Pope urged on Easter Sunday in his traditional Urbi et Orbi message. Speaking to the tens of thousands of pilgrims gathered in St Peter's Square, Pope Leo urged "those who have the power to unleash wars" to chose peace.  This should not be a peace “imposed by force”, he stressed, but one achieved through dialogue – “not with the desire to dominate others, but to encounter them”. Pope Leo warned that the world is “growing accustomed to violence”. We are “becoming indifferent”, he said, not only to the deaths of thousands of people, but to the “hatred and division” war causes, as well as its “economic and social consequences”. Borrowing a phrase from the late Pope Francis, Pope Leo warned of the “ever-increasing ‘globalisation of indifference’”. “We cannot continue to be indifferent!”, he urged. “We cannot resign ourselves to evil!”. For this reason, he said, he would be leading a prayer vigil for peace next Saturday, April 11th, in St Peter’s Basilica.