TEHRAN – Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei said here on Monday that those who seek to create division in the Islamic world are neither Shia nor Sunni.

“The U.S. and Israeli intelligence agencies play the key role in Iraq’s insecurity by creating division and inciting hard-line elements,” Ayatollah Khamenei told a group of Shia and Sunni ulema during a meeting.

“The most insecure places in Iraq are where the U.S. troops are present,” he added.

The unity of the Islamic world is a sublime and achievable objective, and the ulemma should fulfill their heavy responsibility in this regard, he noted.

“If this unity is achieved, it will be a support for the Islamic states, and these states will not be forced to turn to the United States and Britain out of fear or weakness.

“In the modern era, colonialism made the maximum use of (Muslims’) ignorance, prejudices, and unsound understanding to create division, and after the victory of the Islamic Revolution, this process was intensified,” the Leader said.

The U.S. tried to depict the 1979 Islamic Revolution as a Shia revolution while it is an Islamic and Quranic revolution, he explained.

If Iran’s revolution had not supported Muslims in Palestine, Afghanistan, Lebanon, and everywhere in the world, the enemy would not have had any animosity toward Iran, he noted.

“Despite all this animosity, the Islamic Revolution revived Islamic pride and honor among Muslims, and today the glory and awakening of the Islamic ummah is more conspicuous due to the failure of the enemies,” Ayatollah Khamenei said.

In the meeting, several Shia and Sunni ulema from various Islamic countries gave speeches on the necessity of Islamic solidarity and vigilance on the part of the ulema.