VATICAN CITY: A top Vatican official warned Wednesday against the “erosion of international law” and the concept of a “preventive war” on Iran in comments that appeared critical of US-Israeli military action.
“This erosion of international law is truly worrying: justice has given way to force,” Pietro Parolin, Pope Leo XIV’s number two as Secretary of State, said in an interview published on the official Vatican News outlet.
“If states were to be recognized as having a right to preventive war.... the whole world would risk being set ablaze,” he said.
The US and Israel have justified military action as a way of destroying the potential missile and nuclear threat from Iran.
“A multipolarism marked by the primacy of power... is dangerously taking hold,” Parolin added.
