VATICAN CITY -- Pope Francis addressed Thursday the charitable organizations working in Syria and Iraq, thanking and encouraging their activities, and renewing his urgent calls for peace in the Middle East.

 “Apart from the necessary humanitarian help, that which our Syrian and Iraqi brothers and sisters desire the most is peace. I therefore do not tire of asking the international community for greater and renewed effort to reach peace throughout all of the Middle East and to ask for them not to look the other way,” said the pontiff during his meeting with the charitable organizations that operate in Syria and Iraq.

 The head of the Holy See also thanked and encouraged “the international initiatives, in particular the United Nations, for the supportive and meditative work for various different governments, in order that the end of the conflict can come about and that the good of defenceless populations can finally be put in first place.”

 “It is a path that we must traverse together with patience and perseverance, but also with urgency, and the Church will not stop giving its contribution,” Francis concluded.

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