Featured Image Credit: Getty Images/Christopher Furlong
Topics: Donald Trump, Pope Leo, Politics
Britt Jones
Topics: Donald Trump, Pope Leo, Politics
Pope Leo XIV has risked igniting a feud with President Trump after his latest dismissal of the leader's proposed plans for the Middle East.
Trump has been busy with his peace-making plans ever since late last year, when it was reported that he was trying to implement a structure to stop the Gaza conflict, which had been backed by the UN.
The US initiative to end the Gaza war came from a 20-point peace plan, which was developed in collaboration with multiple nations like Qatar, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Pakistan, and Indonesia and headed up by a Board of Peace.
Currently, the Board of Peace is helmed by Trump and senior US officials.
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But it won’t include anyone from the Vatican, as Pope Leo has brutally turned down an invitation to join, said a senior Vatican official.
The US Board is chaired by Trump to allegedly provide strategic oversight, resource mobilization, and more to Gaza so it can move on to its reconstruction and become a stable nation.
With an oversight structure including an Executive Board, senior advisors, and more, it aims to bring peace after its February 19 meeting, which has racked up $5 million in pledges - per Trump.
Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s secretary of state, allegedly revealed, per the Independent, that the Pope had some reservations about the structure of the Board.
Apparently, he was concerned about the US being the primary body that would be managing international crisis situations, such as Gaza’s conflict.
Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Holy See’s secretary of state, told reporters the US shouldn’t be in charge, and that it should instead be led by the UN.
“At the international level, it should above all be the U.N. that manages these crisis situations,” he told reporters, per Reuters.
However, Pope Leo has been a long-time naysayer of Trump's policies - so it might not shock people to know he refused the invite.
The Vatican isn’t the only party to decline the invite, as while around 60 countries were invited ahead of its meeting about restructuring the leadership in Gaza, a limited number formally joined.
As of right now, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, Apollo Global Management CEO Marc Rowan, World Bank Group President Ajay Banga, US Deputy National Security Adviser Robert Gabriel Jr. and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, are all on the Board.
“The Board of Peace will prove to be the most consequential International Body in History, and it is my honor to serve as its Chairman," Trump wrote on Truth Social on February 15.
Concerns have also been revealed regarding those who have been invited to the Board, such as international leaders involved in global conflicts, such as Russia's Vladimir Putin, who has been involved in a war with Ukraine since 2022, and Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu, who has similarly been in an invasive war with Palestine for decades.
However, despite those concerns, Armenia, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates, have all joined the program for potential peace.
UNILAD reached out to the White House for comment.