Iran eyes spiritual leadership of Iraq's Shiites
Iran is promoting a conservative cleric close to its supreme leader as a possible successor for the aging spiritual leader of Iraq's Shiites, a move that would give Tehran a powerful platform to influence its neighbor, according to figures close to Iraq's religious leadership.
The 81-year-old spiritual leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, is one of the most influential figures in Iraq, revered by its Shiite majority as well as by Shiites around the world. In the years after the 2003 US-led invasion and fall of Saddam Hussein, he was strong enough to shape the new Iraq, forcing American leaders and Iraqi politicians to revise parts of their transition plans he objected to. (Reuters)
