Beirut remains officially in a state of war with Israel, and Lebanon criminalises contacts with Israeli nationals. Meetings between civilian officials from the two sides have been extraordinarily rare throughout their fraught history.

Pope Leo XIV prayed Tuesday at the site of a deadly 2020 Beirut port explosion that has become a symbol of dysfunction and official impunity and called for justice to prevail, as he offered words of consolation to Lebanon’s people — including in the war-battered south — on the final day of his first overseas trip.

Pope Leourged political leaders in Lebanon on Sunday to make peace their highest priority in a forceful appeal in a country that remains a target of Israeli airstrikes on the second leg of his first overseas trip as Catholic leader.

Capobres, who is Catholic and has worked in Lebanon for 17 years, met Leo on Monday, alongside priests and other church volunteers on his first overseas trip as pope, in which he called on the Middle East's leaders to reject the horror of war.

Pope Leo XIV is visiting holy sites in Lebanon on Monday as he seeks to recognize the importance of the country's religious pluralism and also send a message to Christians not to abandon the region.

Pope Leo XIV completes pilgrimage to Turkey, meeting with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and religious leaders while promoting peace and unity before traveling to Lebanon.

Pope Leo gathered leaders of Lebanon's religious communities next to the old frontline of the country's sectarian civil war on Monday and urged peaceful coexistence in a region beset by bloodshed and tumult.

Lebanon and Israel will send civilian-led delegations to the upcoming meeting of the ceasefire monitoring mechanism in Naqoura in southern Lebanon on Wednesday, a rare move that signals a shift toward broader political and technical engagement in managing post-war arrangements.