Tariq Aziz to meet with Pope
Iraq’s Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz, a Christian, is to meet the pope in the Vatican next week.
In a brief statement, Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said Aziz had requested the meeting with John Paul, and that the pope had agreed to see him.
The Vatican has been outspoken in its opposition to a new war against Iraq, with top officials saying a preventive strike would have no legal or moral justification, and warning that it could unleash anti-Christian sentiment in the Muslim world.
John Paul himself has said a war against Baghdad would be a “defeat for humanity.” He has said military action must only be used as a last resort, and then under strict conditions.
The pope has also been a long-time critic of UN sanctions against Iraq imposed after its 1990 invasion of Kuwait.
The last time Aziz called on the pope, in 1998, the two discussed the embargo.
