According to the AP, Pope Benedict XVI has told Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of the discrimination and violence Catholics suffer in the Middle East and said he hopes relations between the local Catholic Church and authorities can improve.
At the Synod of Bishops for the Middle East that apparently prompted the communiqué to Ahmadinejad, Orthodox delegates, including especially Archbishop Sliwa had asked for help with church in Iraq. What is happening in Iraq to Assyrian and Anglican Christians is shocking beyond anything happening in Iran. See U.S. Catholic.
The Orthodox bishops also sought commonality on the date for Easter each year and more openness in the Eucharist. This is not likely to happen in the near future. But in the face of daily murders and attacks on churches, a stronger stance by Catholic, Anglican, Orthodox and Protestant traditions on the treatment of all Christians in Iraq is called for.