The Archbishop of Canterbury has underlined his concerns about a possible conflict in Iraq due to fears for people living in the region.
Dr Rowan Williams said the Christian position would be against war unless all efforts to avoid it had been exhausted.
The Archbishop and Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Westminster, have issued a joint statement calling for continued weapons inspections, which they said could render war unnecessary.
|
|
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams
|
They also warned of the "unpredictable humanitarian and political consequences" of war.
Dr Williams's attention was drawn back to the crisis in Iraq today at a press conference ahead of his enthronement at Canterbury Cathedral next Thursday.
Asked if he would support a war on Iraq if it were to happen, Dr Williams said it was difficult to know what the reaction would be as it was not known in what circumstances war would break out. There would be two obvious priorities," he said.
"One would be to bring the church to people in the services, and the other is to bring whatever resources we can to bear on reaching a just resolution to the conflict."
Asked if a war in Iraq could ever be moral, he said: "The sort of doubts that the Cardinal and I raised last week take for granted the very deeply entrenched Christian position that self-defence is a primary reason for going to war but even then it's a last resort ."
Dr Williams also spoke about his enthronement next week and about his hopes for his future as the 104th Archbishop.
He was looking forward to getting to know the cathedral's congregation and expected them to teach him as well as the other way round, he said.
PA