Pope Leo doubles down on two-state solution as he lands in Lebanon, urges ‘justice for all’

Pope Leo XIV is using his first foreign tour to restate one of the Vatican’s clearest diplomatic positions: a two-state solution is, in his words, “the only solution” capable of delivering justice to both Israelis and Palestinians.

Speaking to reporters aboard his flight from Turkiye to Lebanon on Sunday, Leo said he discussed both the Gaza and Ukraine wars in private with Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, stressing that Ankara “has an important role to play” in ending both conflicts.

On Gaza, he repeated the Holy See’s familiar stance, a Palestinian state in East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza remains the only internationally recognised path out of the decades-long crisis.

“We know that in this moment, Israel doesn’t accept this solution,” Leo said. “But we see it as the only one that can offer a solution to the conflict that they are living in. We are also friends with Israel, and we try with both sides to be a mediating voice that can help bring them closer to a solution with justice for all.”

Notably, Leo has avoided directly naming Israel’s war in Gaza during his stop in Turkey, choosing instead to lean on broad moral appeals and diplomatic language.

Israel offered no immediate reaction. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently insisted his opposition to a Palestinian state “has not changed one bit”, adding he does not need “affirmations, tweets or lectures from anyone”.

The pope’s plane landed in Beirut hours later, where he is scheduled to meet Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun, currently the Arab world’s only Christian head of state, and address diplomats at the presidential palace.

Crowds lined the roads into the capital as Leo began the second half of a trip designed to project interfaith unity and offer what Vatican officials describe as a “glimmer of hope” amid regional turmoil.

Lebanon, where roughly 30 percent of the population is Christian, remains deeply strained by economic collapse, political paralysis and proximity to Israel’s escalating campaign in Gaza.