Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has called on the international community to adopt a “realistic” approach toward what he described as the United States’ “illegal” actions, in a message addressed to Pope Leo XIV, the leader of the world’s Catholics. Iran’s Tasnim news agency reported on Saturday, May 16, that Pezeshkian praised the Pope’s “moral positions” regarding the joint U.S. and Israeli attacks against Iran. The Iranian president urged countries around the world to confront what he called the United States’ “illegal demands and adventurous and dangerous policies.” He also said that 3,468 Iranian citizens, including children and students at a school in the city of Minab, had been killed as a result of U.S. and Israeli air strikes. Pezeshkian added that Iran’s missile attacks on Gulf countries and the current crisis in the Strait of Hormuz were the result of what he described as “aggression” by the United States and Israel. He stressed that normal transit through the Strait of Hormuz would resume once the conflict ends, adding that Iran would implement monitoring mechanisms to ensure security in the waterway within the framework of international law.
