{"id":3147,"date":"2026-03-04T14:46:06","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T14:46:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/3147\/"},"modified":"2026-03-04T14:46:06","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T14:46:06","slug":"iraqs-top-shia-cleric-sistani-denounces-unjust-war-on-iran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/3147\/","title":{"rendered":"Iraq’s top Shia cleric Sistani denounces ‘unjust war’ on Iran"},"content":{"rendered":"

Iraq’s top Shia Muslim cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani<\/a>, denounced on Wednesday the “in the strongest terms the unjust war” on Iran.<\/p>\n

Sistani, himself born in Iran, called “on all Muslims and free people around the world to denounce” the war<\/a> and “stand in solidarity with the Iranian people”.<\/p>\n

He urged “all countries, particularly Islamic nations, to make every possible effort to end it immediately and to reach a just and peaceful solution to the Iranian nuclear issue.”<\/p>\n

Despite his non-Iraqi roots, Sistani has been a vital figure in Iraq’s recent history, guiding his followers through decades of dictatorship, occupation and conflict.<\/p>\n

But his influence extends beyond Iraq with millions of followers across the Muslim world.<\/p>\n

Sistani<\/a> always had a complex relationship with his birthplace, Iran, and was known for resisting Tehran’s growing influence in Iraq.<\/p>\n

That partly stems from the centuries-old rivalry between the holy Iraqi city of Najaf and Iran’s Qom, the other main seat of Shia religious authority.<\/p>\n

Sistani has been seen as a competitor to Qom, and while Iran is ruled by clerics, Sistani has always avoided any formal role in government.<\/p>\n

On Sunday, Sistani mourned Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei following his death in US and Israeli strikes, and urged Iranians to remain united to “thwart the aggressors’ sinister goals”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Iraq’s top Shia Muslim cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, denounced on Wednesday the “in the strongest terms the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3148,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[94,2409,73],"class_list":{"0":"post-3147","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-iraq","8":"tag-iraq","9":"tag-sistani","10":"tag-us-israel-war-on-iran"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116171452259327424","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3147"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3147\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}