Pope Leo XIV urges Russia, Ukraine to sit down at negotiating table The Church has a responsibility to promote values that foster peace, he saidVATICAN CITY, September 29. /TASS/. Pope Leo XIV called on Russia and Ukraine to resolve the conflict at the negotiating table. "I believe the Church has a responsibility to promote those values, continually inviting leaders such as those of Russia and Ukraine, and other countries, to come, to sit down, to engage in dialogue, to seek ways of resolving problems without continuing these wars that no longer make sense," he said while speaking to journalists from his press pool, which includes a TASS correspondent, on his way back from France. On September 28, Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, the Pope’s special envoy for Ukraine, arrived in Moscow for the third time. As he told TASS in an interview, his primary mission is to help find solutions to humanitarian issues. In late August, Vatican Secretary for Relations with States Paul Richard Gallagher visited Moscow. 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UN secretary-general meets Iranian foreign minister
• What happened: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres met with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi to discuss diplomatic efforts aimed at resolving the Mid...