A senior Iranian cleric on Friday held the United States-British coalition in Iraq responsible for the killing of Iraqi Shiite leader Ayatollah Mohammed Baqr al-Hakim.
Speaking at Friday prayers in Teheran, Ayatollah Emami Kashani said that ”accusations against al-Qaeda or supporters of Saddam Hussein are absurd and stupid, as the main culprits are those who do not wish the rise of Islam in Iraq and therefore needed Hakim’s removal”.
Thousands of worshippers shouted ”Death to America” and ”Death to England” during the sermons.
Hakim was killed by a car bomb last week after Friday prayers in Najaf in southern Iraq and buried in the same city on Tuesday. A number of suspects allegedly linked to al-Qaeda and the former Iraqi president have been arrested over the bombing.
”What they [the US and Britain] do not understand is that the blood of Hakim will give life to Islamic thoughts in Iraq and whether they like it or not, also Iraq will become an Islamic state like Iran,” said Kashani, a frontrunner of the country’s hardline camp.
Hakim had been in exile in Iran for 23 years and therefore is believed to have supported a similar theocratic system for Iraq as in the Islamist neighbour.
”Accusing Iran of interfering in Iraq is another sign of [US-British] unawareness,” Kashani added, saying it was ”not Iran, but the Moslem nation of Iraq who will finally realise their wish for an Islamic system”.
The government of President Mohammad Khatami has several times called on religious leaders throughout the country not to refer to delicate foreign policy issues during Friday prayers but the warnings have so far been ignored. — Sapa-DPA