Syria beset by West, not sectarianism

A senior Iranian cleric says the crisis in Syria is not a sectarian conflict between Sunnis and Shias, but a politically-motivated plot hatched by the West and the Zionist regime.

According to Press TV, Grand Ayatollah Nasser Makarem Shirazi said in a letter to Grand Sheikh of Egypt’s Al-Azhar Mosque Ahmed Al-Tayeb said “Syria clashes are not a religious rift between Shias and Sunnis, but rather a politically-motivated conflict between a deviant sect supported by the West and Zionist regime on the one hand, and Muslims, both Sunnis and Shias, on the other.”
The top religious figure stated that Takfiris seek to drive a wedge between Muslims and stir divisive sentiments among them, adding that the enemies seek to paint Islam as a religion of violence and terror.
Ayatollah Makaerm Shirazi alos condemned crimes by extremist groups in Syria, stressing the need for a peaceful solution to the ongoing crisis in the Arab country.
The Ayatollah said the best solution for the crisis in Syria is one that is “logical and without violence and that safeguards the lives of Muslims.”
Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi also condemned an earlier attack on a mosque in Damascus that killed a top Sunni cleric as well as the recent murder of a Shia cleric near the Egyptian capital of Cairo.