Vatican backs military force to stop ISIS ‘genocide’

The Vatican’s top diplomat at the United Nations has called for a co-ordinated international force to stop ISIS in Syria and Iraq.

Italian Archbishop Silvano Tomasi said there is a type of genocide happening to Christians and other minorities in these countries, which must be stopped.

Archbishop Tomasi told Crux’s John Allen that any anti-ISIS coalition has to include the Muslim states of the Middle East, and can’t simply be a “Western approach”.

It will be up to the UN and its member states, especially the Security Council, to determine the exact form of intervention necessary, he added.

“But some responsibility [to act] is clear,” he said.

Archbishop Tomasi presented a statement entitled “Supporting the Human Rights of Christians and Other Communities, particularly in the Middle East”, co-authored with the Russian Federation and Lebanon, to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on March 13.

The statement, which had almost 70 nations as signatories, highlighted the perilous situation faced by Christians in the Middle East.

It also recognised abuses suffered by persons from any religious, ethnic and cultural background in the region.

Archbishop Tomasi told Vatican Radio the statement had prompted France to call for a special session of the UN Security Council to deal with the problems of Christians in the Middle East.

This will happen on March 27.

Archbishop Tomasi told Crux that he hopes the statement will galvanise nations around the world to provide humanitarian aid to Christians and other groups suffering at the hands of ISIS.

Beyond that, he said, the crisis requires “more coordinated protection, including the use of force to stop the hands of an aggressor”.

“What’s needed is a coordinated and well-thought-out coalition to do everything possible to achieve a political settlement without violence,” Archbishop Tomasi said.

“But if that’s not possible, then the use of force will be necessary.”

The archbishop called such international military action to defend beleaguered minorities “a doctrine that’s been developed both in the United Nations and in the social teaching of the Catholic Church”.

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