Bush Faces `Grave Responsibility' for Iraq War, Vatican Says
Pope John Paul II concentrates during his weekly general audience at the Vatican's Paul VI hall February 26, 2003. The Pontiff will meet next Thursday in a private audience with the Spanish Prime Minister Aznar. REUTERS/Alessia Pierdomenico
Vatican City, March 18 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. President George W. Bush, who yesterday gave Saddam Hussein an ultimatum to leave Iraq or face an attack, faces ``a grave responsibility'' before God in renouncing diplomacy, the Vatican said.
Anyone ``who decides that all the peaceful means favored by international law have been exhausted is taking on a grave responsibility in the face of God, his conscience and history,'' Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said in a statement.
The 82-year-old pope, through ambassadors and meetings with world leaders, is trying to negotiate peace between the U.S. and Iraq.
The pontiff met last month with British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, who both support the U.S., and sent an envoy to Washington to meet with Bush. The pope also saw Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz and sent an envoy to Iraq with a message...