Pope Francis has launched a last-ditch appeal to Bashar al-Assad, urging the Syrian president to respect international humanitarian law and to protect the rights of civilians in the country’s bloody civil war.
Francis’s message was contained in a letter delivered directly to Assad on Monday by Cardinal Mario Zenari, the Vatican’s top diplomat in Syria.
Forces loyal to the Assad regime are moving closer to taking the remaining rebel-held areas of Aleppo after intense artillery shelling and airstrikes that have killed or displaced thousands. Hundreds of thousands of people in east Aleppo have been living with dwindling food supplies, a lack of fuel, water and electricity and no access to hospitals.
The Vatican said the letter contained an appeal to the president and the international community to end the violence and condemned “all forms of extremism and terrorism from whatever quarter they may come”.
It said Francis was appealing “to the president to ensure that international humanitarian law is fully respected with regard to the protection of the civilians and access to humanitarian aid”.
On Sunday in a message delivered in St Peter’s Square, the pope called on followers not to forget the suffering of civilians in Aleppo, particularly families, children and sick and elderly people.
“Unfortunately, we have become accustomed to war, to destruction; but we must not forget Syria is a country full of history ... we cannot accept that this is negated by war, which is a pile of abuses and falsehoods,” he said.
The Vatican initially declined to confirm the existence and contents of the letter after it was initially published by a Syrian news website alongside a picture of Assad sitting next to Zenari.
It is not common practice for the Vatican to release private correspondence by the pope, but it decided to reveal more details after Syrian and Russian news sites suggested the letter was an expression of sympathy for Syria but failed to report that it included a call for Assad to respect humanitarian laws.
