蜜桃交友

By Pope

Archbishop Auza鈥檚 address focussed on three areas where 鈥渢ragic conflicts continue to burden the lands and peoples of the Middle East鈥�. It is 鈥渆ssential to protect the life and dignity of the victims of armed conflict and to ensure the protection of defenceless peoples and civil structures, especially hospitals, schools, places of worship, refugee camps鈥�, said the Archbishop.

Yemen

A recent UN Security Council briefing on Yemen confirmed how the humanitarian situation there remains dire, said Archbishop Auza: 鈥淐hildren are starving; access to clean water is scarce; the economy continues to struggle severely; those who cannot flee the front lines of war remain cut off from basic supplies and humanitarian workers are impeded to operate in some areas鈥�. According to the UN Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, September was the deadliest month this year in Yemen, with an average of thirteen people killed each day.

In spite of some small positive steps, a nation-wide ceasefire repeatedly called for by the United Nations, 鈥渋s essential if the intolerable suffering of the Yemeni people is ever to come to an end鈥�, said Archbishop Auza. 鈥淐oherence and honesty demand that this call for a ceasefire must be concretely accompanied with a stop to the flow of arms in the region鈥�, he added.

Syria

Recent events in the Northeast of Syria 鈥渁re cause for great concern鈥�, continued the Archbishop. He repeated Pope Francis鈥� appeal during the Sunday Angelus of October 13^th for all those people who are 鈥渇orced to abandon their homes due to military actions.鈥� On that occasion, the Pope renewed his appeal to all the actors involved as well as to the international community, 鈥渢o commit yourselves, with sincerity, with honesty and with transparency on the path of dialogue to seek effective solutions鈥�. Archbishop Auza continued his intervention saying: 鈥淚t is important that safe, sustained and unimpeded humanitarian assistance be given to the thousands of people who have been forced to flee since earlier this month, many of whom are children, assuring the full respect of their fundamental human rights, the preservation of their ethnic identity and avoiding the creation of new sources of tensions and injustice鈥�.

Palestine

Moving specifically to the Palestinian Question, the Holy See鈥檚 Permanent Observer recalled the three-year anniversary of Security Council Resolution 2334. 鈥淭here is indeed cause for great concern as the situation on the ground worsens鈥�, he said. 鈥淗armful rhetoric, threats, terrorism and violence, including at times disproportionate use of force on the part of the security forces, exacerbate the strained situation even further鈥�, continued Archbishop Auza.

He went on to address the issue of Christian communities feeling 鈥渃onstrained to abandon these lands, the very cradle of their faith, in search of peace and security for themselves and for their children鈥�. Their presence and witness in these places is of fundamental importance, he added, calling for more to be done to ensure their protection, 鈥渘ot only for their survival but also for them, like all citizens living in Israel and Palestine, to realize their full potential and integral human development鈥�.