TEHRAN – Tehran Friday prayer leader Ayatollah Mohammad-Ali Movahedi Kermani has urged the Indian government to stop its anti-Muslim actions in Kashmir, saying such measures would not be to the benefit of neither India nor the region.

Tensions have been running high in Kashmir since Monday, when New Delhi revoked Article 370, a constitutional provision that had come into effect in 1949 and grants special status to Kashmir, allowing it to have its own flag and constitution, among other rights.

In the lead-up to the move, India sent thousands of additional troops to the disputed region, imposing a curfew on parts of it, arrested political leaders and shut down telecommunication lines.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Ayatollah Movahedi Kermani pointed to the Yemeni crisis, saying Saudi Arabia has sunk into a quagmire in Yemen and has been trying to save itself to no avail.

He further said that Riyadh has been defeated in Yemen, adding that Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had predicted such defeat.

On the other hand, Movahedi Kermani said, the UAE has changed its position on Yemen.

The cleric also pointed to the recent U.S. sanctions on Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, saying on the one hand U.S. President Donald Trump is after dialogue and on the other he sanctions Iran’s foreign minister.

“They should know that if negotiations were to take place, which certainly won’t, the negotiator would have been the foreign minister,” he said.

This demonstrates that American rulers have no logic, Movahedi Kermani added.

MH/PA