THE Archbishop of Wales has urged the UK Government to call for peace amid escalating tensions between the United States of America and Iran.
US President Donald Trump ordered a drone strike at Baghdad airport in Iraq that killed Iran’s top military commander Qasem Soleimani. The US blamed Iran for the death of US civilian contractor.
Archbishop John Davies, who is the Bishop of Swansea and Brecon, said the rising tensions have caused alarm but said the UK Government should try and use its influence for a peaceful resolution.
He said: "At a time when the Christian world continues to celebrate the birth of the Prince of Peace, the Wonderful Counsellor, we must all view with a sense of some alarm, the escalation in tensions between the United States and Iran.
"The recent action on the part of the US, taken, it would appear, in the total absence of any consultation with its closest allies, has raised the danger level significantly, and the response has begun. It is right that leaders of the world’s nations who are of a good heart and a calm mind should counsel care and wisdom. I urge the government of the United Kingdom to make the strongest representations that such calm and wisdom should prevail in the cause of the peace which Christ came to bring and which the world, in so many places, so desperately needs.”
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has since joined with other European leaders to call for all sides to show restrain.
He issued a joint statement with Germany’s Angela Merkel and France’s Emmanuel Macron which called on "all parties to expertise utmost restraint and responsibility" but also said they were concerned at what they said was a "negative" role Iran has played in the region.