Israeli, Palestinian presidents in unprecedented Vatican prayers

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By Philip Pullella VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Israeli and Palestinian presidents meet in an unprecedented prayer meeting with Pope Francis on Sunday, a gesture he hopes will "re-create a desire, a possibility" of relaunching the Middle East's stalled peace process. The Vatican has played down any expectations that the Sunday evening meeting between Shimon Peres and Mahmoud Abbas - billed as a "pause from politics" - will lead to any immediate breakthroughs in the region's tortuous problems and says it is not meddling in regional issues. "No one is presumptuous enough to think peace will break out on Monday," said Father Pierbattista Pizzaballa, a Church official in charge of Catholic sites in the Holy Land and a key organiser of the encounter. "The intention of this initiative is to re-open a road that has been closed for some time, to re-create a desire, a possibility, to make people dream," he said, adding that the pope does not want to get involved in details of issues such as borders or settlements.




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