The Parents of Minab School Children Killed in US Bombing Write to Pope Leo XIV
Iranian parents whose children died in the February 28 U.S. strike have written Pope Leo XIV a letter of thanks — and the phrases they quote back are his own. The White House has yet to apologize.
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The letter opens with a confession: they wrote it with trembling hands.
According to a new report from Iran-based Press TV, parents of 168 children killed in the February 28 U.S. strike on Shajareh Tayyebeh Elementary School in southern Iran have now sent a letter of gratitude to Pope Leo XIV from amidst what they describe as the ashes and ruins of their city.
They call themselves “the fathers and mothers of 168 children who, these days, instead of embracing the warm bodies of our children, press their burned bags and bloody notebooks to our chests.”
The city is Minab, in Hormozgan province, on the Persian Gulf.
Among the dead, by Amnesty International’s count, were at least 110 children between the ages of seven and twelve, along with 26 teachers and four parents who had rushed to the school after the first missile hit and who were killed by the second. Mikail Mirdoraghi was nine.
His grandfather, according to Iran International, said, “Mikail was afraid of the dark. We always slept beside him. I don’t want him to be alone here at night.”
The parents quote three Leo phrases back to him. They thank him for publicly calling on the world’s powers to “reduce the level of violence and bombings.”
Elsewhere, they lean on his insistence that civilians be protected and international humanitarian law respected. The line they have turned into something close to a creed is Leo’s teaching that real peace arrives “not through force and weapons, but through the path of dialogue.”
It makes perfect sense that these parents would see Leo as an ally. Here’s the background that led us to this moment.
