Cardinal Dominique Joseph Mathieu, OFMConv, of Tehran-Isfahan, has warned that the world remains “far from a peace agreement,” urging nations to abandon arms and turn to dialogue.
“More than a month has passed since the ceasefire came into effect, and we are still far from a peace agreement,” Cardinal Mathieu said in a reflection published by Fides News Agency.
“Everything suggests that, instead of considering negotiations, the parties involved have turned to their own arms suppliers to stock up and prepare for new hostilities,” the prelate added.
He recalled Pope Leo’s appeal: “We must encourage everyone to abandon their weapons, as well as the money hidden behind every war.” Analysts, he added, “who until recently spoke globally of a new Cold War climate are now evoking a Third World War.”
Cardinal Mathieu noted that “since 1979, Iran and Israel have no longer had diplomatic relations and remain in a state of tension,” with “no attempts at rapprochement, reconciliation, or peace processes.”
On Iran’s nuclear program, he said officials “have not ruled out resuming” the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), but “only if it is fair, in a win-win context.”
Citing the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), he stressed that it “not only prohibits new nations from acquiring nuclear weapons, but also dismantles those that already possess them,” while lamenting that “states that still possess nuclear arsenals… now avoid referring to them as arsenals, preferring the term ‘deterrents.’”
“Peace cannot be achieved by force alone,” he said, quoting Antiqua et Nova. “It must be built through patient diplomacy, the active promotion of justice, solidarity, integral human development, and respect for human dignity.”
“Pray for the victims,” he added, urging Christians “to work for peace between the parties… loving the oppressor and the oppressed.”
