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In his strongest words yet, Pope Leo XIV on Saturday denounced the "delusion of omnipotence" that is fueling the U.S.-Israel war in Iran and demanded political leaders stop and negotiate peace.

Leo presided over an evening prayer service in St. Peter's Basilica on the same day the United States and Iran began face-to-face negotiations in Pakistan and as a fragile ceasefire held.

History's first U.S.-born pope didn't mention the United States or President Donald Trump in his prayer, which was planned before the talks were announced. But Leo's tone and message appeared directed at Trump and U.S. officials, who have boasted of U.S. military superiority and justified war in religious terms.

"Enough of the idolatry of self and money!" Leo said. "Enough of the display of power! Enough of war!"

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US vice-president JD Vance left Islamabad on Sunday after failing to reach a deal with Iran after a marathon 21 hours of negotiations.

Vance cited shortcomings in the talks, saying that Iran had chosen not to accept American terms, including to not build nuclear weapons.

“The bad news is that we have not reached an agreement, and I think that’s bad news for Iran much more than it’s bad news for the United States of America,” Vance said.

“So we go back to the United States having not come to an agreement. We’ve made very clear what our red lines are.”

Vance said he spoke with US president Donald Trump at least half a dozen times during the talks, and one of the most significant points of difference between the two sides had been around the development of nuclear weapons.

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When Pakistan’s prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, announced that the US and Iran, along with their allies, had agreed to an immediate ceasefire on Tuesday night, he made clear that the truce applied “everywhere including Lebanon”. But hours later, the Israeli government insisted that the deal did not include halting its attacks on Lebanon, which had become one of the deadliest fronts of the regional war instigated by the joint US-Israeli attack on Iran.

By Wednesday afternoon, Israel had launched its largest and most destructive attack on Lebanon in years, killing at least 300 people and wounding more than 1,100. Dozens of Israeli warplanes dropped bombs on 100 targets across Lebanon within 10 minutes, with the Israeli military claiming it was targeting Hezbollah “command centers” in an operation it called “Eternal Darkness”. But Israeli warplanes leveled several buildings in crowded residential neighborhoods of Beirut, spreading panic in the Lebanese capital and overwhelming hospitals with hundreds of casualties. Israel also continued bombing Lebanon’s infrastructure, destroying the last remaining bridge that linked southern Lebanon to the rest of the country.

Israel’s escalating attacks on Lebanon could unravel the two-week ceasefire even before negotiations between the US and Iran, which are expected to start on Saturday in Islamabad. Iranian leaders are accusing the US of failing to uphold the truce and threatening to back out of it unless Washington restrains its ally. “The U.S. must choose – ceasefire or continued war via Israel. It cannot have both,” Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, wrote on Twitter/X on Wednesday. “The world sees the massacres in Lebanon. The ball is in the U.S. court, and the world is watching whether it will act on its commitments.”

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The U.S. military has launched operations to begin de-mining the Strait of Hormuz, U.S. Central Command (Centcom) said on Saturday.

Centcom said in a social media post highlighted by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that two Navy guided-missile destroyers began “setting conditions” for this mission on Saturday morning.

The USS Frank E. Peterson and USS Michael Murphy have previously operated in the Arabian Gulf to help clear the strait of sea mines set by Tehran, according to Centcom.

“Today, we began the process of establishing a new passage and we will share this safe pathway with the maritime industry soon to encourage the free flow of commerce,” Centcom Commander Adm. Brad Cooper said in the post.

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Twenty-three years ago, I sat beside Hamid Karzai in his presidential office in Kabul, watching US bombers pound Saddam Hussein’s Iraq live on Al Jazeera. 

It was clear the Afghan leader hated what he saw, concluding that the American-led war was mad and bad.

We both grimaced – and we were right. By invading Iraq, former US President George W Bush and former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair incited a catastrophe. It led to civil war, hundreds of thousands of deaths, the trashing of international law, and trillions of dollars down the drain.

Today marks the 23rd anniversary of the fall of Baghdad, and the world is witnessing the same madness, bloodshed and horror – this time courtesy of another US president, Donald Trump.

In his Iran adventure, Trump naturally enjoys the support of Blair, who has criticised Prime Minister Keir Starmer for not showing stronger support for Britain’s allies in Washington.

But warmonger Blair has now retired from active politics. Trump’s primary ally in the Iran debacle is Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Twenty-three years ago, Netanyahu (then an opposition politician) was one of the strongest advocates for the assault on Iraq.

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President Trump said Tuesday that he would “suspend” an escalation of attacks on Iran for two weeks as long as Iran agrees to open the Strait of Hormuz.

In a Truth Social post less than two hours before his 8 p.m. EDT deadline for Iran to make a deal to open the strait, the president said conversations with Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Field Marshal Asim Munir led to the “double sided CEASEFIRE.”

“The reason for doing so is that we have already met and exceeded all Military objectives, and are very far along with a definitive Agreement concerning Longterm PEACE with Iran, and PEACE in the Middle East,” he wrote.

Trump said a 10-point proposal was also received from Iran that is a “workable basis on which to negotiate.”

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