Iranian cleric calls attacks on US interests “religious duty”

A senior Iranian cleric has said that attacks on American interests anywhere in the world amount to a “religious duty”.

Mohsen Araki, a member of the praesidium of Iran’s Assembly of Experts and the Supreme Council of Islamic Seminaries, made the comments in a message directed at Muslims, Caliber.Az reports, citing Iranian media.

Araki said that “jihad against” the United States by all available means was obligatory for what he described as “free believers”, and argued that any actions weakening regional “resistance” movements were religiously prohibited under Islamic law.

He also referred to Israel’s military actions and a reported agreement involving Lebanon and the disarmament of Hezbollah, portraying such developments as part of a broader campaign against regional resistance groups.

The remarks are likely to be viewed in Western capitals as further evidence of hardline rhetoric within parts of Iran’s clerical establishment, amid already strained relations between Tehran and Washington over security issues in the Middle East.

By Aghakazim Guliyev