Bishop apologises for Taliban comments

The new Bishop to the Armed Forces has apologised after saying the Taliban could be admired for their faith and sense of loyalty to one another.

Bishop Stephen Venner said he had not intended to cause any offence by his comments in an interview with The Daily Telegraph on Monday.

He told the newspaper: “There's a large number of things that the Taliban say and stand for which none of us in the West could approve, but simply to say therefore that everything they do is bad is not helping the situation because it's not honest.

"The Taliban can perhaps be admired for their conviction to their faith and their sense of loyalty to each other."

Responding to the backlash, the bishop admitted that his comments appeared “incredibly insensitive”.

“If that has caused offence, I am deeply grieved by it because that’s the very last thing that I would want to do,” he said.

"It was one small phrase in quite a long interview, and a phrase that simply said you cannot describe everybody under one heading as Taliban as being equally black, equally evil," he said.

"These are human beings and there are some amongst them who could - we don't know - who could perhaps be people with whom at the end of the day we could do business."

He later release a statement in which he expressed his “full support” for the British and allied troops in Afghanistan.

"The way the Taliban are waging war in Afghanistan is evil, both in their use of indiscriminate killing and their terrorising of the civilian population. No religion could condone their actions," he said.

"I give my full support to the British and allied troops who are engaged in the country, seeking to work with the Afghan government to bring stability, democracy and an enduring peace."