Iran official cautions India over Kashmir policy
In Iran's capital, the leader of Friday prayers cautioned India over its sudden downgrading of Indian-administered Kashmir, the Hindu-majority nation's only Muslim-majority region.
Ayatollah Mohammad Ali Movahedi Kermani, an adviser to Iran's supreme leader and Tehran's Friday prayer leader, told hundreds of worshippers that India's revocation of disputed Kashmir's special autonomous status was "an ugly move."
The semiofficial Fars News Agency said he cautioned India not to provoke a confrontation with Muslims.
Kashmir is divided between India and Pakistan and is claimed by both. India's actions have inflamed tensions with Pakistan.
Iran's semiofficial Tasnim News Agency quoted a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry as saying that Iran expects India and Pakistan to opt for peaceful methods and dialogue in dealing with the dispute.
