RNA - Britain has a long experience of sowing discord between the Shiites and Sunnis and using the advantages of such differences to its own benefit, Ayatollah Khamenei said, addressing members of the headquarters of the congress to commemorate the Muslim Kurd martyrs in a meeting held in Tehran on May 4.
He also referred to the recent bill proposed by the US Congress that mandates arming the Iraqi Kurds and Sunni tribesmen directly, and said, "Are they really interested in the Sunnis?"
"They (the US and Britain) are against anything which has a sign of Islam and they don’t differentiate between the Shiites and Sunnis and issues like religion and ethnicity are just a pretext for them to sow discord," Ayatollah Khamenei warned.
In relevant remarks late in 2013, Ayatollah Khamenei urged the Muslim Ummah (community) to increase vigilance as enemies of Islam are hatching increasing plots to stir sectarian strife among them.
“A major problem of the Muslim World today is the imposed, intentional and wicked problem of kindling differences among the Muslim Ummah and (Islam’s) religious sects,” Ayatollah Khamenei said addressing Hajj officials in Tehran.
The Supreme Leader said that the global arrogance and colonialist powers were fully experienced in igniting sectarian strife among Muslims, adding, “Hajj’s capacities should be used for confronting (and defusing) these plots under the present conditions.”
“The confrontation (that the enemies are trying spark) among the religious sects will not be limited to the Shiite-Sunni confrontation and if the enemies of Islam can institutionalize these confrontations, they will put on their agenda sparking internal differences inside the different Shiite sects and Sunni sects,” Ayatollah Khamenei said.
In March 2015, the US Congress introduced legislation that would allocate military articles directly to the Kurdish Peshmerga fighters and Sunni tribesmen.
Earlier this month, Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi himself said his government strongly opposed the bill, saying the bill would sow division.
In a press release, al-Abadi said that the Iraqi government strongly opposed the bill.
"The bill proposed by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee is opposed (by the Iraqi government), as it leads to further divisions in the region," al-Abadi said.
"We call on the US Congress not to go through with the bill to preserve strategic relations between the two countries (the United States and Iraq) in fighting the Islamic State (of Iraq and the Levant) terrorist organization and reinforcing cooperation between them," al-Abadi added.
The Iraqi Prime Minister noted that the countries working alongside Baghdad in combatting the ISIL have respected Iraq’s sovereignty, and stressed that nobody will receive weapons without the consent of the central government.
"There is no double dealing with the outside parties… We stress that arming any group will not occur unless via the Iraqi government, in accordance with its military plans," al-Abadi added.
The Iraqi Parliament also issued a statement rejecting the bill, and reiterated its support to a unified Iraq.
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