Pope says two states the ‘only solution’ to conflict as he opens Lebanon visit

Catholic leader arrives in Beirut under tight security, urges Lebanese citizens to remain in country, which has seen waves of emigration due to war and sectarian divisions

Pope Leo XIV called a two-state arrangement the “only solution” to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, doubling down on the Holy See’s longstanding position in his first airborne news conference en route to Lebanon on Sunday.

“We all know that at this time Israel still does not accept that solution, but we see it as the only solution,” he said, as he flew from Istanbul to Beirut for the second and final leg of his maiden voyage as pope.

“We are also friends with Israel, and we are seeking to be a mediating voice between the two parties that might help them close in on a solution with justice for everyone,” added the pope, speaking in Italian.

The American pope arrived in Lebanon at a precarious moment for the country, after years of successive crises. He was fulfilling a promise of his predecessor, Pope Francis, who had wanted to visit Lebanon for years, but was unable to, as his health worsened.

At the Beirut airport, where his plane landed with a Lebanese military jet escort, Leo was greeted first by President Joseph Aoun, and then by Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, as well as Prime Minister Nawaf Salam. He moved through the streets of the Lebanese capital in a closed popemobile, a highly rare security measure.

In an address given in the country’s presidential palace, the pontiff called on the Lebanese people to embrace reconciliation and to remain in their divided, crisis-hit country, which has seen waves of emigration, while urging Lebanese leaders to put themselves fully “at the service of your people.”

“There are times when it is easier to flee, or simply more convenient to move elsewhere. It takes real courage and foresight to stay or return to one’s own country,” Leo said.

He emphasized the need for peace, using the word more than 20 times during the address, without mentioning any specific international or regional conflicts, including the war between Hezbollah and Israel.

“Here, as in other parts of the world, uncertainty, violence, poverty, and many other threats are leading to an exodus of young people and families seeking a future elsewhere, even though it is very painful to leave one’s homeland,” Leo said.

Lebanon, a Muslim-majority country where about a third of the population is Christian, has always been a priority for the Vatican, as Christian communities have shrunk amid years of conflict.

“The Holy Father is coming at a very difficult moment for Lebanon and for our region,” said Bishop George, archbishop of the Melkite Greek Catholic Archeparchy of Beirut. Lebanese are worried about the future, he said, and still fear a possible return to all-out war with Israel. “In this difficult moment, the pope’s visit is a sign of hope. It shows that Lebanon is not forgotten,” he said.

Another delegation of some 300 Syrian Christians, led by a Greek Melkite Catholic priest, was set to travel to Lebanon to join a meeting between Leo and youth groups and pray in a public mass on Beirut’s waterfront.

“We are in need of someone like the pope to come and give us hope as Christians” at a time of “fear of an unknown future,” said 24-year-old Dima Awwad, one of the delegation members. “We wish that the pope would come to visit Syria as he visited Lebanon, to reassure the people and to feel that we are present as eastern Christians and that we need to be in this place.”

Series of crises

In 2019, the country’s currency and banking system collapsed, and many Lebanese saw their savings evaporate. The financial crisis drove shortages of electricity, fuel, and medicine.

Another disaster followed in 2020, when hundreds of tons of ammonium nitrate improperly stored at the Beirut port detonated in an explosion that blasted through the surrounding neighborhoods, killing 218 people, wounding thousands more, and causing billions of dollars in damage.

The highlight of Leo’s Lebanese visit will come on his last day, Tuesday, when he spends time in silent prayer at the site of the blast on August 4, 2020, and meets with some of its victims.

There are hopes among the Lebanese that Leo will demand accountability from Lebanon’s political class and insist that there can be no peace without truth and justice.

Lebanon’s ongoing conflict with Israel

After the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, which sparked the war in Gaza, Hezbollah entered into a low-level conflict with Israel that escalated into a full-fledged war in September 2024, killing more than 4,000 people in Lebanon and causing widespread destruction.

The terror group’s near-daily attacks displaced some 60,000 residents of northern Israel, until a US-brokered ceasefire requiring both Israel and Hezbollah to vacate southern Lebanon was inked after two months of open conflict.

Israel has withdrawn from all but five strategic posts along the border. Since the ceasefire, the IDF said it has killed over 370 Hezbollah operatives and members of allied terror groups in strikes, hit hundreds of Hezbollah sites, and conducted over 1,200 raids and other small operations in southern Lebanon.

Before Leo’s arrival, Hezbollah urged the pope to express his “rejection of injustice and aggression,” referring to Israeli strikes, which Jerusalem says are aimed at keeping the terror group from rebuilding.

The group urged its supporters to line up along the papal convoy route from the airport to the presidential palace — which is punctuated by bombed-out buildings from the recent war — to pay their respects.

Hundreds of them did so, decked out in uniforms emblazoned with the portrait of Iran’s first supreme leader, Ruhollah Khomeini, while waving the flags of Lebanon and the Vatican.

Mounir Younes, the leader of a Hezbollah-affiliated scout troupe, told the Associated Press that they aimed to send a message about “the importance of coexistence and national unity.

Hezbollah, a Shiite group, has allied with several Christian groups, including the Free Patriotic Movement and Marada Movement. However, the Christian party with the largest parliamentary bloc, the Lebanese Forces, fiercely opposes Hezbollah and has criticized it for pulling the country into a war with Israel.