Iraq's top religious authority, Ali al-Sistani, condemned on Friday deadly violence that killed protesters at sit-ins this week in the southern city of Najaf and said a new government must have the trust and support of the people.
Sistani also called on security forces to protect anti-government demonstrators from any further attacks.
His remarks were delivered by a representative during his weekly Friday sermon in the city of Karbala.
"It is the security forces that must take responsibility to keep the peace, protect the protest squares and peaceful demonstrators and identify attackers and rabble rousers," he said.
At least eight people were killed on Wednesday when followers of populist cleric Moqtada al-Sadr stormed an anti-government protest camp in Najaf. They stormed a Karbala camp on Thursday wounding at least 10.
Sadr last week instructed his followers to leave some protest sites where they had supported demonstrators after Sadr and Iran-aligned political blocs reached a deal to name new Prime Minister Mohammed Tawfiq Allawi - a choice protesters reject.
Allawi condemned the violence and called on Twitter on the outgoing cabinet which is acting in a caretaker capacity to “protect protesters”.
Sistani rarely comments on politics. But he has addressed Iraq’s popular uprising, which broke out among the country’s majority Shiite masses in Baghdad and the south in October, in almost every Friday sermon since.
His words carry weight for millions of Shiites, both the protesters and the Shiite-dominated and Iran-aligned political establishment they oppose.
He has urged early elections, political reform and condemned the killing of nearly 500 peaceful protesters by security forces and militias that Shiite Iran backs.
Anti-government protesters now want him to put Sadr, whose religious pedigree comes from a Najaf family, in his place.
