Archbishop warns of a future full of dread for the Middle East
By KIRSTY WALKER
25th December 2006

The Archbishop of Canterbury used his Christmas message to issue a veiled attack on the policies of Tony Blair and George Bush in the Middle East.

In a frank speech, Dr Rowan Williams said it was "chilling" to find in the troubled region an "almost total absence" of any belief in a political solution to the crisis.

In an address inspired by a recent visit to Bethlehem, Dr Rowan Williams called on individuals not to forget the Israeli and Palestinian communities.

He said that both groups of people feared a future in which they were allowed to disappear "while the world looks elsewhere".

The message from Dr Williams comes came only days after he clashed with the Government during his trip after claiming in a newspaper article that the "shortsightedness" and "ignorance" of Britain's policies on Iraq were putting Christian communities in the region at risk. the rest