TEHRAN
An Iranian senior cleric or imam, Kazem Sadiqi, on Friday blamed the U.S.-led coalition fighting in Syria and Iraq for "weakening" his country.
"This coalition does not lauch operations against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant militants, but undermines the governments of Syria and Iraq," Iran's official news agency quoted Sadiqi as saying in a Friday prayer in the capital Tehran.
Sadiqi asserted that the coalition airstrikes had actually been hitting key resources in Syria, aiming to weaken the conflict-hit country where more than 190,000 people have been killed and millions of others displaced by civil war since 2011.
Sadiqi didn't support the demand to create a no-fly zone in the region, claiming that the coalition actually sought to weaken Syrian air forces.
Futher, Sadiqi also accused the coalition powers of hitting Iraqi troops instead of the ISIL militants. "The Iraqi operations against ISIL have been slowed down by the intervention of the US-led coalition in the country," he said.
The US-led campaign was launched against ISIL targets in Iraq on August 9, with the support of France, the U.K. and Belgium, along with that of Arab states Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
Senior imams in Iran have the authority of speaking on behalf of the country's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
www.aa.com.tr/en
