Pope Leo rejects Trump’s ‘Board of Peace’ invite and backs UN to solve global crises
The Board of Peace was set up by the US President to secure a ceasefire in and rebuild Gaza following the war with Israel
The Pope has turned down an invitation from Donald Trump to join the "Board of Peace," the Vatican has announced.
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The Vatican's secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Paroli, said that the Pope had concerns about the plan and that he “will not participate” because of this.
The Board of Peace was set up by the US President to secure a ceasefire in and rebuild Gaza following the conflict with Israel.
Some have claimed that the initiative is an attempt to undermine the United Nations, something that the Vatican has also expressed concerns about.
“For us, there are... some critical issues that should be resolved,” Cardinal Parolin said.
Read more: Pope Leo denounces 'zeal for war' in fiery foreign policy speech
“One concern is that, at the international level, it should above all be the UN that manages these crisis situations.
"This is one of the points on which we have insisted.”
On the list of global power brokers that have already signed up to the scheme, which was snubbed by the UK government and most European nations, are Alexander Lukashenko, whose authoritarian track record in Belarus has led to the nation being described as “Europe’s last dictatorship.”
Saudi Arabia, Argentina, Qatar, Turkey, Kosovo, and Bulgaria have also joined the board - which participants have to pay $1 billion to secure permanent membership.
Ten of the 22 countries announced so far on the founding board are included in an ongoing US travel ban, including Uzbekistan, Egypt, Pakistan and Azerbaijan.
Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper announced that the UK would not be taking part due to ‘concerns about President Putin’.
She said in January: "This is about a legal treaty that raises much broader issues.
“We do also have concerns about President Putin being part of something which is talking about peace, when we have still not seen any signs from Putin that there will be a commitment to peace in Ukraine.
“And to be honest, that is also what we should be talking about.”
In January, Pope Leo XIV repeated the Holy See's call for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and insisted on the Palestinians' right to live in Gaza and the West Bank "in their own land".
During the speech, he also denounced how nations are using force to assert their dominion worldwide, saying they are "completely undermining" peace and the post-Second World War international legal order.
He went on to lament how the United Nations and multilateralism as a whole were increasingly under threat.
"A diplomacy that promotes dialogue and seeks consensus among all parties is being replaced by a diplomacy based on force, by either individuals or groups of allies," he said.
"The principle established after the Second World War, which prohibited nations from using force to violate the borders of others, has been completely undermined
"Instead, peace is sought through weapons as a condition for asserting one's own dominion. This gravely threatens the rule of law, which is the foundation of all peaceful civil coexistence."