Pope Leo’s debut overseas trip will be to Turkey and Lebanon, where he is expected to make appeals for peace across the Middle East, the Vatican has announced.

Leo, who was elected pontiff in May after the death of Pope Francis, will visit Turkey between 27 and 30 November and Lebanon from 30 November until 2 December.

Matteo Bruni, the Vatican’s spokesperson, said on Tuesday the pontiff had “accepted the invitation of the heads of state and ecclesiastical authorities” in Turkey and Lebanon.

Leo, the first North American pope, is expected to speak about the struggles of Christians across the region and appeal for peace. The pontiff said on Sunday that he hoped a plan to end the war in Gaza would soon reach the “desired results”. Leo’s role in pushing for peace in Gaza has become more prominent since Israel’s strike on Gaza’s only Catholic church in July, killing three people and injuring 10 others, including the parish priest.

Bruni said the trip to Turkey would include a meeting with Patriarch Bartholomew, the spiritual leader of the world’s 260 million Orthodox Christians, for celebrations of the 1,700th anniversary of a major early church council, which took place in Nicaea, now İznik.

The late Pope Francis visiting a Catholic church in the predominantly Christian town of Qaraqosh in Nineveh province, Iraq, in 2021. Photograph: Vatican Media Handout/EPA

The itinerary of the apostolic journey to Lebanon “will be announced in due course”, Bruni added.

The late Pope Francis, who made more than 40 overseas trips during his 12-year papacy, had also planned to visit both countries this year but was prevented from doing so due to poor health. His final overseas trip was to Corsica in December last year, the first visit by a pontiff to the French Mediterranean island.

Among Francis’s most risky trips was to Iraq in March 2021, during which he revealed late last year that he had escaped a double suicide bombing after the attempts on his life were foiled by British intelligence and Iraqi police. Francis said he had been strongly advised against making the trip because Covid was still raging and the security risks were high, especially in Mosul, the northern city devastated by Islamic State militants, but he was determined to go.

Soon after he was elected, Pope Leo received an invitation to the White House from the US president, Donald Trump. The invitation was delivered by the US vice-president, JD Vance, during his visit to the Vatican. In a video of the meeting, the Chicago-born pope, previously Cardinal Robert Prevost, puts the invitation on his desk and can be heard saying “at some point”.