Pope Francis has acknowledged receiving a request from embattled Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro to help relaunch talks to end the country's political crisis but ruled out any involvement unless opposition leader Juan Guaido requests it.
Francis on Tuesday acknowledged that he hadn't read Maduro's letter, which he said arrived at the Vatican via diplomatic pouch.
He added, "We'll see what can be done." But speaking to reporters en route home from the United Arab Emirates, he recalled that a previous Vatican diplomatic effort to facilitate talks between Maduro and the opposition "went up in smoke."
The Argentine pope, who was a young Jesuit provincial at the time, called John Paul's intervention "courageous" because it "avoided a war that was on the horizon."
In an address to his ruling party's legislators on Tuesday, Erdogan said the EU countries had "delivered the presidency of a nation to someone who hasn't even been through an election."
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