Lebanon’s Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri quoted Iraq’s top Shiite cleric, Ayatollah Ali Sistani, as demanding a regional role for Iraq.
Sistani’s call followed a declaration by Iraqi President Barham Saleh in his speech at the Arab summit in Tunis, on the importance of Iraq being a “point of convergence and not of dispute.”
“Sistani is a fighter for the cause of Iraq unity, progress and defeating corruption,” Berri said during a press conference after meeting with the Shiite cleric in Najaf.
“Sistani maintains that Iraq should fulfil its regional role, and he is no less keen towards Lebanon than he is towards Iraq,” he added.
Sistani’s office issued a statement on the meeting with Berri, pointing out that the Lebanese speaker congratulated the senior cleric “on the Iraqis’ victory on ISIS.”
Sistani underlined “the great sacrifices made by the Iraqi people to achieve this historic victory,” stressing at the same time the importance of developing relations between Iraq and Lebanon in various fields, according to the statement.
The senior Shiite cleric also emphasized the importance of joint work to “consolidate the values of peaceful coexistence, based on the rights and mutual respect between the different religious and ethnic components in our region, in order to provide security, stability, progress and prosperity for our peoples.”
At the Arab Summit in Tunis, the Iraqi president said his country could play an important role in the region.
He explained that the “culture of the zero equation” in the political dealings among the countries of the region has greatly delayed the joint work opportunities, noting that joint and productive action as well as the consolidation of the culture of common interests was the only means to dispel political misunderstandings, and correct the political path for the benefit of coexistence in peace.
