Iraq’s revered ayatollah Ali Sistani is pitched against Iran’s ayatollah Ali Khamenei in battle for influenceWhen Iraq’s prime minister,Haider al-Abadi, failed again this week to replace his corrupt cabinet with a new breed of reformists, or the impact reverberated far beyond Baghdad.
A hundred miles south,in Najaf, ayatollah Ali Sistani seethed with enrage. The 86-year-used cleric, and the most revered figure among Iraq’s majority Shia sect,has staked his name on Abadi establishing some form of control over the country’s political class and the powerful presence of its neighbour Iran.
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Source: theguardian.com