'US driving wedge between Iran, Arab World'

Srinagar, India, Feb 19, IRNA -- Holding it responsible for the opposition unrest in Iran, senior Shia cleric here has accused the US of trying to drive a wedge between Muslims by inciting regimes in the region to persecute their Shia communities.

“The excess on the Shia community by regimes in Bahrain, Yemen and Saudi Arabia are being committed at the behest of the US to create a wide gulf between Iran and the Arab world,” Syed Agha Hassan Al-Mosavi, who is also a Hurriyat Conference leader said while addressing a Unity Week gathering in central Budgam district, a statement from his Anjuman-e-Sharie Shiayan said here today.

“The US is also making a futile bid to create instability in Iran by using a few notorious anti-revolution elements in the name of democracy,” the Shia leader said.

Coming out strongly in support of the current pro-democracy upsurge in Arab states, Agha Hassan said that anti-Islam forces, particularly the US and Israel, could try to sabotage these mass movements by giving them a sectarian colour.

He urged the Islamic world to stand united under all circumstances, describing unity as a Quranic imperative, “without which neither religious nor material interests of Muslims would remain safe from the evil of their enemies.”/end