Tehran, YJC. Head of Iran's Expediency Discernment Council Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani underscored the need for unity among Islamic countries.
He made the remarks in a meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi in Tehran on Wednesday, asserting that enemies of Islam always use "division and rifts” in order to achieve their own political goals.
He added that "the capacities of Muslim countries should not be wasted on groundless rifts.”
Inviting the Iraqi government to foster unity among Shias, Sunnis, Kurds, Turkmens and other Iraqi ethnicities, the ayatollah said unity will prevent enemies from exploiting possible divisions to meet their own political ends.
He pointed out that "reaching a consensus is hard, but it would be difficult than it for the country to be gripped by internal divisions.”
Al-Abadi, for his part, said his country sees Iran as a "reliable neighbor,” and expressed hope for the expansion of Tehran-Baghdad relations.
He also termed the ISIL terrorists as false advocates of Islam, adding that they call infidels those Iraqi Shias and Sunnis who do not submit to their views, adding that terrorists have "resorted to massacre under the pretext of sectarianism.”