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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, February 03, 2003

War with Iraq 'Unacceptable': Anglican Archbishop

The new Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams said that war against Iraq was unacceptable and would spark humanitarian crisis both in Iraq and other regions of the world, according to an interview published on Sunday by The Sunday Times newspaper.


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The new Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams said that war against Iraq was unacceptable and would spark humanitarian crisis both in Iraq and other regions of the world, according to an interview published on Sunday by The Sunday Times newspaper.

In his first newspaper interview since taking office, Williams, leader of the world's 70 million Anglicans, said such a conflict would be "unacceptable" to him as a Christian moralist.

Pointing to the resulting instability of Iraq and probable refugee crisis if a war breaks out, Williams said military campaign was no way to deal with country as vulnerable as Iraq.

He also said he would lobby British Prime Minister Tony Blair in a bid to prevent a conflict and would "continue to do so after the outbreak of hostilities."

Williams, due to be enthroned as head of the Anglican church later this month, also doubted Britain's role as a "moral policeman."

"If we take onto ourselves too rapidly the role of moral policeman... we mortgage ourselves to a very long job which might require some uncomfortable examination of the regimes we have supported in the past," he said.

Blair, the firmest US ally on disarming Iraqi President Saddam Hussein by force if necessary, has vowed to join a US-led militarystrike against Iraq even without new UN approval.

Recent opinion polls showed that most Britons were opposed to war without a second UN resolution authorizing military action against Iraq and leaders from the main Christian denominations in Britain had expressed their deep concerns over a possible war in Iraq.


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