The British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, has received his starkest warning yet that Britain and the US risk unimaginable "conflagration" in the Middle East. From Frank Millar, London Editor.
The warning came as leading British churchmen signed their own Downing Street declaration against involvement in any US-led war against Iraq.
The next Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, was among yesterday's 2,500 signatories of a Pax Christi petition denouncing the world's most powerful nations for using war and the threat of war "as an acceptable instrument of foreign policy".
As the Christian peace group handed their petition in to 10 Downing Street, fresh evidence of widening opposition to British backing for a US strike against Saddam Hussein came with the intervention of the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, who backed calls for the recall of the Westminster parliament before any decision is made to commit British forces.
On Monday, the veteran Labour MP and Father of the Commons, Mr Tam Dalyell, wrote to Mr Blair demanding the recall of MPs in early September, insisting it was always considered too early to consult parliament until it was "too late".
Backing Mr Dalyell's call yesterday, the Moderator, the Rt Rev Finlay Macdonald, also wrote to Mr Blair insisting that the "elected representatives of the people must be fully involved" if there was any question of Britain committing troops to a war in Iraq.
The Moderator also reflected the view widely held on the Labour backbenches - and persistently rumoured to be privately shared by Mr Blair and his advisers - that a serious attempt to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian crisis should come ahead of any attempt to topple Saddam.
"It seems to many of us that the real crisis in the Middle East is the continuing failure to facilitate any meaningful political process between Israelis and Palestinians," he told Mr Blair. "The energy being expended in relation to Iraq would be better directed towards resolving the current Middle East conflict."
He added: "It is quite unthinkable to ignite a further conflagration, the consequences of which are unimaginable."
Two recent opinion polls have shown a majority of Britons against a war over Iraq. In its poll, taken over the weekend among 1,001 respondents, Channel Four television found that 52 per cent said Britain should not militarily take part in a US strike on Iraq, 34 per cent were in favour, while 14 per cent were undecided. Fifty-one per cent of respondents to a Sunday Times poll in July supported military action to oust Saddam, but a like number were opposed to British forces taking part.
Meanwhile, the Liberal Democrat spokesman, Mr Menzies Campbell, has also urged Mr Blair to pay "serious attention" to earlier cautionary comments by Lord Hurd and retired Field Marshall, Lord Bramall.
In an article in Monday's London Evening Standard, Lord Hurd, a former Conservative foreign secretary, urged the United States to seek a fresh mandate from the United Nations before seeking "regime change" in Iraq.
Lord Bramall echoed last week's warning by Mr Dalyell that support for US action could see Britain embroiled in a messy and protracted Middle East conflict.
Mr Campbell said when men such as these offered their advice, the government should pay heed."Lord Bramall and Lord Hurd bring unique understanding and a rare historical perspective. This is not the ritual opposition of the usual suspects but the prudence born of experience. The Prime Minister would do well to consult them."