Lebanon's caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati (R) meets with the Holy See's Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin at the government palace in Beirut on June 26, 2024. (Credit: Joseph Eid/AFP)
Beirut — On Wednesday, Vatican Secretary of State Pietro Parolin urged warring parties in the Middle East to accept "peace proposals," saying the region including Lebanon "doesn't need war."
"The Middle East is going through a critical moment," Parolin told a press conference in Beirut during a days-long visit to Lebanon.
The Holy See "asks for peace proposals to be welcomed, so that fighting stops on each side, so hostages in Gaza are released, so that the necessary aid arrives unhindered to the Palestinian population," he said.
"Lebanon, the Middle East, the whole world certainly doesn't need war," the cardinal added.
U.S. President Joe Biden on May 31 laid out a plan for a cease-fire in Gaza and the release of hostages, but the conflict has continued to rage, with fears growing of a wider regional war drawing in Lebanese Hamas ally Hezbollah.
On Wednesday, caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati urged against linking "Lebanon's stability and interests to extremely complicated conflicts and never-ending wars."
Israel and Hezbollah have traded near-daily cross-border fire since Hamas's Oct. 7 attack.
The violence has killed more than 480 people in Lebanon, mostly fighters but also including 94 civilians, according to an AFP tally, with 15 soldiers and 11 civilians dead in Israel, according to authorities.
Parolin met political and religious leaders during his visit and said the Vatican was "seriously concerned" at Lebanon's presidential vacuum.
Electing a head of state is "an urgent and absolute necessity", he said, expressing the hope "that the political parties will be able to find a solution without delay".
Lebanon, long divided on sectarian lines, has been without a president since the end of October 2022 when former president Michel Aoun’s term ended.
Neither of parliament's two main blocs — Hezbollah and its opponents — have the majority required to elect one, and successive votes have ended in deadlock.