Rafsanjani warns sectarian conflicts will take Iraq backward

Tehran, Nov 11, IRNA – Chairman of the Expediency Council Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani on Sunday warned that sectarian and political conflicts would take Iraq to backwardness. Ayatollah Rafsanjani made the remarks in separate meetings with groups of Iraqi academics, cultural activists, theological students, merchants and tribal leaders. Ayatollah Rafsanjani cited a verse from to the Holy Quran which calls on the Muslims to refrain from division warning that useless quarrels would only weaken the Muslims themselves and said: "When we hear these Quranic verses and ignore them, the outcome is that followers of different Islamic sects resort to killing each other." The Ayatollah called on the Iraqi nation to learn from Iran's experience which he said in light of wise leadership of late Imam Khomeini left behind the difficulties of the early years of the Islamic Republic of Iran following the 1979 Islamic Revolution. "The solution to Iraqi issue is to put national and religious interests and the unity of Islam above the partisan and sectarian interests," he noted./end