Archbishop Renato Martino said that «sanctions carried to the extreme and for a long period end by being harmful to peoples.»
The former permanent observer of the Holy See to the United Nations supported the decision of the U.N. Security Council on Friday to abolish the sanctions that he said «weighed on the Iraqi people» for 13 years.
The archbishop made his statements during a seminar at the Gregorian University on «The Church and the International Order.»