“Particularly troubling are the signals coming from the entire region following the heightening of tensions between Iran and the United States, which risk above all compromising the gradual process of rebuilding in Iraq, as well as setting the groundwork for a vaster conflict that all of us would want to avert”. Pope Francis made these remarks in his address to the Diplomatic Corps. In his speech, he focused on the most pressing geopolitical issue of our time, renewing the appeal he made during his Angelus last Sunday that “all the interested parties avoid an escalation of the conflict and keep alive the flame of dialogue and self-restrain in full respect of international law”. The Holy Father also stressed the need to break “the pall of silence that risks falling over the war that has devastated Syria over the course of the last decade” and called it “imperative to devise suitable and far-sighted solutions capable of enabling the beloved Syrian people, exhausted by war, to regain peace and to begin the reconstruction of the country”. Pope Francis went on to say that the “Holy See regards favourably every initiative aimed at laying the groundwork for the resolution of the conflict, and once more expresses its gratitude to Jordan and Lebanon for having welcomed and taken responsibility, not without significant sacrifice, for millions of Syrian refugees”. The Pontiff, however, lamented that “sadly, in addition to the difficulties caused by this welcome, other factors of economic and political uncertainty in Lebanon and in other states, are provoking tensions among the population, further endangering the fragile stability of the Middle East”.