Is there an error here that "officials said Mahathir, one of Asia's elder statesman and president of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, raised questions about the Middle East conflict during the 10-minute meeting " in First meeting between Pope and Mahathir (June 8)?

Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad came to Holy See with a large delegation and met, besides the Pope, other members of the government of Holy See. Surely the formal introductions would take longer than 10 minutes, not forgetting the exchange of preliminary banter as normal in such historic occasions?

The Pope and Mahathir also exchanged gifts — a papal medal for a carved silver box — and discussed terrorism and the Palestine-Israel conflict.

Even a monologue on these subjects, not to mention dialogue, would take longer than 10 minutes.

To suggest that the Pope would deign to give our PM only 10 minutes of his time after a 10-hour flight over thousands of miles must either be an insult or a misreporting or the "officials" interviewed were, for reasons best known to them, trying to downplay the historicity of such a meeting.