This initial meeting between Abbas and Leo XIV since the pope’s election in May also marked the tenth anniversary of the signing of the Global Agreement between the Vatican and the State of Palestine in 2015, the year the Catholic Church recognized the Palestinian state.
“During the cordial discussions, the urgent need to provide assistance to the civilian population in Gaza and to end the conflict by seeking a two-state solution was acknowledged,” the Vatican stated in a communiqué.
On Wednesday, shortly after arriving in Rome, Abbas visited the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore for a moment of reflection at the tomb of Pope Francis, who passed away in April. “I came here because I cannot forget everything he did for the Palestinian people,” he told the press.
The President of the Palestinian Authority, which governs in the West Bank, has visited the Vatican several times during Francis’s papacy, having planted an olive tree in the Vatican gardens in 2014 alongside former Israeli President Shimon Peres and Pope Francis as a symbol of peace.
In recent months of his papacy, the Argentine pope has intensified his statements against the Israeli offensive, causing diplomatic tensions with the Israeli embassy.
Pope Leo XIV has also expressed solidarity with the “martyred land” of Gaza on multiple occasions and condemned the forced displacement of Palestinians, but noted that the Vatican cannot comment on the alleged genocide in the enclave.
On Friday, Abbas will be received in the early afternoon by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni at the Palazzo Chigi, the seat of the government in Rome.
