Khaberni - The Vatican's top diplomat, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, said on Tuesday that the Vatican will not participate in the Peace Council initiative launched by US President Donald Trump, adding that efforts to deal with crises should be managed by the United Nations.
Pope Leo, the first American Pope of the Vatican, received an invitation to join the Council in January.
Under Trump's plan, which led to a fragile ceasefire in Gaza in October, the Council was supposed to temporarily manage the sector. However, Trump, who chairs the council, later stated that its powers would expand to include dealing with global conflicts.
The Council is scheduled to hold its first meeting in Washington on Thursday to discuss the reconstruction of Gaza.
Italy and the European Union said their representatives plan to attend as observers, due to their non-membership in the council.
Parolin said that the Vatican "will not participate in the Peace Council due to its unique nature, which of course differs from that of other nations."
He added, "One of the concerns is that at the international level, the United Nations should first and foremost manage these crises. This is one of the points we insist on."
The ceasefire in Gaza has seen repeated violations, with reports of hundreds of Palestinian casualties and the killing of four Israeli soldiers since it began in October.
An Israeli attack on Gaza led to the death of more than 72,000 people and caused a hunger crisis and internal displacement of the entire population of the sector.
A number of human rights experts and researchers say that Israel's attack on Gaza amounts to genocide, a conclusion reached by a United Nations investigation.
