Antonino Galofaro with AFP / Photo credit: ISABELLA BONOTTO / AFP
modified to
8:14 a.m., March 10, 2024
“Don’t be ashamed to negotiate before things get worse,” Pope Francis said of the war in Ukraine. The head of the Catholic Church recalled that there were “many” actors “ready to play the role of mediators”, “for example Turkey”.
Pope Francis called for “having the courage to raise a white flag and negotiate” to end the war in Ukraine “before things get worse”, in an interview on Swiss television broadcast on Saturday. “I believe that the strongest are those who see the situation, think about the people and have the courage to raise the white flag and negotiate,” he said in an interview with public television RTS in early February, when asked about a debate in Ukraine on the way forward.
“Negotiating is a courageous word. When you see that you are defeated, that things are not working out, have the courage to negotiate,” he added, in an apparent allusion to kyiv. The head of the Catholic Church recalled that there were “many” actors “ready to play the role of mediators”, “for example Turkey”.
Erdoğan says ready to host peace summit
On Friday, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said he was ready to host a Russia-Ukraine peace summit if necessary by receiving his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky in Istanbul. In the first weeks of the war, Turkey hosted peace talks between Moscow and kyiv, which failed. She hopes to be able to relaunch them, more than two years after the start of the Russian invasion, at a time when the Kremlin maintains the advantage in numbers over its adversary and the support of kyiv’s Western allies is running out of steam.
“Do not be ashamed to negotiate before things get worse,” the pope stressed. Asked about the war between Israel and Hamas, he placed responsibility on both sides. “War is waged by two, not by one. The irresponsible are these two who wage war,” he said.