As in neighbouring Palestine, “even in this hitherto untouched corner of the Holy Land, there now runs the blood of innocent people,” warns the Patriarch, noting that “for 63 years now, the Holy Land has been waiting for peace, amid the silence and indifference of the world, which so far has only proffered empty words.” The time has come “to have done with parodies of a two-faced policy, whose broken promises and shameful interests burn like salt on the open wounds of an entire region of the world,” emphasises Patriarch Gregorios III, controversially wondering, “what would happen if, instead of in Syrian Damascus, an attack like this had occurred in Tel Aviv or Jerusalem?
“The world cannot allow hatred and war to engulf the Middle East in a bottomless pit. It’s time to say enough is enough.”