Iraq Shia cleric launches scathing attack on Iran loyalists 

A prominent Iraqi Shia cleric close to Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani for the first time indirectly attacked Iran’s interference in his country, angering groups loyal to Tehran.

Sheikh Hamid Al-Yasiri, one of the representatives of the supreme authority Al-Sistani, said: “From Imam Hussein, we learned that supporting other than the homeland is treachery.”

“To receive voice, direction, and guidance from behind the borders is not the doctrine of Imam Hussein. We reject these affiliations and allegiances and declare with the loudest voice, without fear, and without hesitation, that whoever is loyal to other than the homeland is a traitor.”

Al-Yasiri continued: “I know that words hurt. I know that these words are screams of bullets that will strike through the chests of the fainthearted, traitors, laggards, and whoever sold their loyalty beyond the borders.”

He warned: “I know that there are those who write, record, and scatter (these words) to their masters and their masters send them to their masters abroad; and then the Mufti abroad will issue a fatwa to kill me and kill you on the accusation that we shake the false loyalties that will vanish one day.”

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