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Archbishop of Canterbury urges caution on Syria
Justin Welby says MPs must consider all aspects of 'delicate and dangerous situation'
The Archbishop of Canterbury says the situation in Syria was 'beyond description and horrible'
Alexandra Topping and agencies
THE GUARDIAN
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013/aug/28/archbishop-canterbury-urges-caution-syria
August 28, 2013
The Archbishop of Canterbury has warned MPs to consider all the aspects of a "delicate and dangerous situation" before making their decision on whether to vote for military intervention in the Syria conflict.
The Most Rev Justin Welby warned MPs, who will return early to parliament for an emergency vote on the issue on Thursday, that people not directly involved in the fighting faced a situation that was "beyond description and horrible".
Welby, who spent years promoting reconciliation in war zones in Africa and the Middle East, said there were "numerous intermediate steps" between doing nothing and full regime change in Syria.
Speaking to the Daily Telegraph the Archbishop urged MPs - who he said did not appear to be "slavering [to] unleash the dogs of war" - to check they were sure of what was happening in Syria. "The things which MPs will have to bear in mind in what is going to be a very, very difficult debate is firstly: are we sure about the facts on the ground?" he said. "Secondly: is it possible to have a carefully calibrated response including armed force, if you are sure about the facts on the ground, that does not have unforeseeable ramifications across the whole Arab and Muslim world?
"I have had a lot of conversations with people in the region. I think the overwhelming sense is of a really moving and terrible sense of fear about what might come out of, what might be happening in the next few weeks - not predicated on people doing one thing or people doing another, just a sense that this a terribly, terribly dangerous time."
But Welby added that there was no good answer to the crisis in Syria and that a simple solution "just doesn't exist".
TheA rchbishop visited the region in June and said the situation had deteriorated. "Certainly when I was there in June, and I think it has got worse since then, I can scarcely remember a time of being in meetings where there was such a sense of apprehension. I mean it was tangible, this sense of 'what will happen? What will be the impact on us?' ... the impact on people not directly involved in the fighting is beyond description and horrible," he said.
He acknowledged that the government was better informed to make any decision. "The government and the Americans are seeing intelligence nobody else sees - I just think we have to be very careful about rushing to judgment," he said.
"I am extremely conscious of my own lack of knowledge having spent a lot of time in the area over the years very much in the reconciliation area ... I am deeply, deeply aware of the enormous complexity and inter-linkedness of everything that happens there.
"[The government] knows better than I do certainly that everything there is linked to everything else. You do something in one area and it has an impact far away in a most serious way and they know that ... There are no generalisations you can make in the Middle East apart from the fact that there are no generalisations you can make."
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