TEHRAN
An Iranian cleric accused Saudi Arabia Friday of building and funding the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or the ISIL terror group.
“Everyone knows the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant was established with Saudi Arabia’s oil dollars and the Arab country funds terrorism in the Islamic world,” The Fars News Agency quoted cleric Ayatollah Seyyid Ahmed Hatemi as saying during his Friday prayer sermon.
In Iran, the imams who lead the Friday prayers are seen as representatives of Iran’s highest authority, Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal had said this week Iran was "part of the problem, not the solution" in the Middle East. He said Tehran had no role to play in the region if its current policies remained unchanged.
Hatemi appears to have reacted to the Saudi minister’s comments. “The innocent blood of Muslims is being spilled with your money; you are not part of the problem, but the problem yourself,” he said.
Hatemi warned Saudi authorities they would pay a high price if the death sentence awarded to Saudi Shiite cleric Nimr Baqr al-Nimr was carried out.
A criminal court in Riyadh recently sentenced to death al-Nimr on charges of sedition. The cleric was arrested in 2012 and accused of working against the Saudi state at the behest of ‘foreign’ forces. Shiites comprise around ten to 15 percent of Saudi Arabia’s population.
Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian Thursday had also condemned the death sentence given to al-Nimr and called on Riyadh to overturn it.
"Saudi judicial officials should adopt a realistic approach and prevent the execution of the death sentence, and keep tensions in the Muslim world from escalating,” Abdollahian said.
www.aa.com.tr/en
