VATICAN CITY (CNS): The time is critical for the international community – especially the United States – to press for a workable peace agreement in the Holy Land, Vatican officials said.
The officials said that in the wake of the Iraq war many Arabs expect real progress on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. If that doesn’t happen, the disappointment will be deep, they said.
Jesuit Father Pasquale Borgomeo, who is director-general of Vatican Radio, said in an editorial broadcast on May 13 that it would be disastrous to delay a peace accord any longer in the Holy Land.
He said the US-backed “road map” plan currently under discussion had opened a window of hope. If those hopes are dashed, it would “lengthen that interminable trail of violence, terror and bloodshed that has marked this land for generations”, he said.
Franciscan Father David Jaeger, an Israeli citizen who has worked closely with the Vatican on Middle East affairs, said the fact that Israel has not yet formally accepted the “road map” has caused concern in the Middle East.
