ROME,
May 13 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Pope John Paul II will
tell U.S. President George W. Bush that he is wrong on Iraq during
their envisaged meeting on June 4, a senior Vatican official said
Thursday, May 13.
Cardinal
Pio Laghi said the pontiff will warn Bush that American forces in Iraq
are damaging efforts to bring religions together, and that Washington
should have better understand of the Islamic world.
"The
U.S.-led occupation force in Iraq should be replaced by a
multinational presence which is not dominated by those who wanted and
fought the war," he was quoted as saying by Agence France-Presse
(AFP).
Laghi
was the pope's envoy to Washington last year in a fruitless attempt to
persuade Bush not to invade Iraq against the wishes of the majority of
the United Nations and its 15-member Security Council.
Lack
Of Understanding
The
cardinal also expected the pontiff to tell Bush that his policies in
the Middle East in general were not helping the cause of peace.
Referring
to revelations this month of torture and humiliating mistreatment of
Iraqi prisoners by U.S. soldiers, Laghi asked "how is it possible
to remain in Iraq if these abuses continue?"
"We
must above all build cultural understanding between peoples and I do
not believe that our American friends are doing that," he said.
"Bombing
mosques, going into holy places, putting women soldiers in contact
with naked men shows a lack of understanding of the Muslim world which
I can only call surprising," said the Vatican official.
"We
must build bridges with Islam, not dig trenches between us," he
asserted.
Laghi
said he was "astonished" at the behavior of American troops
and called for "all light to be shed on this affair, justice to
be done and guarantees given so it does not happen again".
'Injustice'
The
Vatican official said the pope would also tell Bush that "the
fight against terrorism must not be purely repressive and
punitive" but "must also proceed from the elimination of its
causes, which are rooted in injustice".
The
cardinal underlined that the need to "give top priority to the
Israeli-Palestinian question."
