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World News

Pope open to talks with Islamic State

While admitting it would be "almost impossible" to open dialogue with the extremist group which has been responsible for the beheading of prisoners, massacred Christians and non-Sunni Muslim civilians in its path and displaced tens of thousands of people, Francis said: "I never say 'all is lost', never. Maybe there can't be a dialogue but you can never shut a door".

The pontiff was speaking on board on his plane returning from Strasbourg, France, where he addressed the European Parliament and the Council of Europe.

In his speech on Tuesday, the Pope said Christians and other minorities had been subjected to "barbaric acts of violence".

He detailed how some had been:"evicted from their homes and native lands, sold as slaves, killed, beheaded, crucified or burned alive, under the shameful and complicit silence of so many," suggesting it was legitimate to try to stop an "unjust aggressor" like Islamic State.

The Iraqi government, backed by US-led air strikes, has been trying to push back Islamic State, although Shi'ite Muslim militias and Kurdish peshmerga have helped contain the Sunni insurgents and repelled them in some provinces.

However, despite Francis' apparent support of a broad coalition fighting against Islamic State, he also suggested governments were also to blame for the rise of the extremist organisation, he said: "There is another threat, that of state terrorism"

"Each state, for its own part, feels it has the right to massacre terrorists. But so many innocent people perish at the same time as the terrorists."

Some observers believe he could mean the Syrian government, accused of killing thousands of its own citizens, or the United States, which has killed innocent people with its drone strikes in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

"We have to fight terrorism. But when you have to stop an unjust aggressor, it has to be done with international consensus. No country can, on its own, stop an unjust aggressor," he said.

The Pope is again expected to raise the issue of persecution of Christians in the Middle East when he touches down in Turkey on Friday for a three-day visit to Ankara and Istanbul.

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