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Pope Leo XIV embarks on his debut overseas trip Thursday, travelling to Turkey and Lebanon to promote Christian unity and urge peace efforts amid heightened tensions in the Middle East.The six-day trip is the first major international test for the US pope, who was elected head of the Catholic Church in May and whose understated style contrasts with that of his charismatic and impulsive predecessor, Francis.In Turkey, Leo will celebrate the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea, where the Creed — a foundational declaration of the Christian faith — was written.While the Chicago-born pontiff’s upcoming visit has so far garnered little attention in the predominantly Muslim country, where Christians represent only 0.2 percent of the 86 million inhabitants, it is eagerly awaited in Lebanon.Lebanon has long been held up as a model of religious coexistence.But since 2019, it has been ravaged by crises, including economic collapse which has caused widespread poverty, a devastating blast at Beirut port in 2020, and the recent war with Israel.”The Lebanese are tired,” said Vincent Gelot, director of the Lebanon and Syria office for l’Oeuvre d’Orient, a Catholic organisation that supports Christians in the Middle East.”They expect a frank word to the Lebanese elite, as well as strong and concrete actions,” he told AFP.- ‘A vicious cycle’ -Preparations are in full swing at the sites the pope will visit, with signs bearing his image and reading “Lebanon wants peace” hung along newly-restored roads.Lebanon’s ambassador to the Holy See, Fadi Assaf, said it was an “exceptional” visit which would “highlight the difficulties facing Lebanon”, which is hoping for a “political and economic breakthrough”.Gelot said the Lebanese are caught in “a vicious cycle of wars and suffering”, “dashed hopes” and “uncertainty about the future”, and they “know full well that (this visit) will not solve all their problems”.It is an opportunity however to highlight the role of private, often religious, organisations in ensuring access to healthcare and education — like the psychiatric hospital run by Franciscan nuns that Leo is set to visit, he said.Trip highlights include a meeting with the country’s youth, an open-air mass expected to draw 100,000 people, and a prayer at the site of the port explosion that killed over 220 people and caused vast damage to the Lebanese capital.Abdo Abou Kassem, the church’s media coordinator for the visit, said the pope also wishes to “reaffirm Lebanon’s role as… a model for both East and West” through an interreligious meeting in downtown Beirut.- Schisms -The visit to Turkey, a strategic crossroad between East and West, is also aimed at promoting the Church’s dialogue with Islam.Leo will meet President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara on Thursday and visit the Blue Mosque in Istanbul on Saturday.But at the heart of the trip is the anniversary of the Council of Nicaea, which Leo was invited to attend by Patriarch Bartholomew I, the spiritual head of Orthodox Christianity.Catholics recognise the universal authority of the pope as head of the Church, while Orthodox Christians are organised into churches that appoint their own heads.The 325 A.D. meeting in Nicaea predated the schisms that divided Christianity between East and West and the commemoration is an important moment to promote Christian unity.On the shores of Lake Iznik, the current name for Nicaea, the 70-year-old will join dignitaries from various Orthodox churches on Friday for a prayer which his predecessor, who died in April, had originally been set to attend.There will be one notable absence. With the war in Ukraine deepening a rift between the patriarchates of Moscow and Constantinople, Russian Patriarch Kirill — a supporter of President Vladimir Putin — was not invited.The pope will be careful not to inflame tensions further by irritating Moscow, which fears the Vatican will strengthen Constantinople’s role as a privileged interlocutor and weaken its influence.

Israel killed Hezbollah’s military chief in a strike on Beirut on Sunday, the Israeli military and the militant group said, hitting an apartment building and killing five people according to Lebanese authorities.Haytham Ali Tabatabai is the most senior Hezbollah commander to be killed by Israel since the start of a ceasefire in November 2024 that sought to end more than a year of hostilities between the two.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that his country “will not allow Hezbollah to rebuild its power”, and called on the Lebanese government to “fulfil its commitment to disarm Hezbollah”.Lebanon’s health ministry said the attack killed five people and wounded 28 more.The ministry did not give the identities of those killed in the strike, which hit the Haret Hreik area in Beirut’s southern suburbs, a densely populated area where Hezbollah holds sway.The group itself, however, said later that four of its fighters had been killed.In a statement shortly after the strike, the Israeli military said it had “eliminated the terrorist Haytham Ali Tabatabai, Hezbollah’s chief of general staff”.It was the fifth Israeli strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs since a ceasefire agreed in November 2024 after a year of conflict, and comes a week before Pope Leo XIV is scheduled to visit Lebanon.The military insisted in its statement that it “remains committed” to the ceasefire.Hezbollah confirmed in a statement the killing of “the great commander” Tabatabai in “a treacherous Israeli attack”.- ‘Maximum enforcement’ -An AFP correspondent at the scene said the strike hit the third and fourth floors of a nine-storey building, where ambulance and fire crews scrambled to find survivors and Lebanese soldiers deployed to secure the site.Debris littered the road below, with several burned-out cars in the street. The AFP journalist saw rescue workers evacuating a body wrapped in a white bag and at least three wounded women from the site.”I was on the balcony. There was a flash, then I hit the railing and all the glass broke,” a man who was in a building opposite the targeted apartment told AFP, refusing to give his name.Lebanon’s official National News Agency said three missiles were fired at the building.Netanyahu’s office said he had ordered the attack.”In the heart of Beirut, the IDF (Israeli military) attacked the Hezbollah chief of staff, who had been leading the terrorist organisation’s build-up and rearmament,” the premier’s office said in a statement.Separately, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said: “Anyone who raises a hand against Israel will have his hand cut off,” warning that Israel would “continue the policy of maximum enforcement”.Israel has defended its attacks on Lebanon since the ceasefire as upholding the terms of the deal by preventing Hezbollah from rebuilding.Sunday’s strike was the first on Beirut’s southern suburbs since June 5, when Israel said it hit a Hezbollah drone factory.- Hezbollah weakened -Tabatabai, born in 1968 according to Hezbollah’s statement, was largely unknown to the Lebanese public.Prior to his role as military chief, Tabatabai was “responsible for the Yemen file” in the group, a source close to the group told AFP.The United States says he commanded special forces in the country as well as in Syria, where Hezbollah supported former president Bashar al-Assad during the country’s brutal civil war.The US Treasury had offered a $5 million reward for information on Tabatabai.Hezbollah was weakened by its fight with Israel, which it started in support of its ally Hamas in Gaza in October 2023 with cross-border exchanges of fire that later escalated into two months of full-blown war.Since then, Lebanon has come under increasing Israeli and US pressure to disarm the militant group, a move that the group has opposed.Netanyahu earlier on Sunday told a cabinet meeting that Israel “will continue to do everything necessary to prevent Hezbollah from re-establishing its threat capability against us”.Lebanese President Joseph Aoun called on the international community to intervene firmly to stop Israeli attacks on the country.Beirut “reiterates its call to the international community to assume its responsibility and intervene firmly and seriously to stop the attacks on Lebanon and its people”, he said in a statement.rjm-burs-glp/nad/dcp