DUBAI: Iran’s top leader rejected possible intervention in Iraq by the United States or other powers, accusing Washington on Sunday of trying to manipulate Iraqi sectarian differences to retake control of the country it once occupied.

In remarks published by the official Irna news agency, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei added that Iraqis themselves could end violence in their country, where Iran has steadily built up its own influence over the past decade.

Another senior figure, former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, said Tehran did not want to meddle in other nations but also hoped to mediate to “extinguish the fire” in Iraq.

Khamenei, who has the last word in Iran, said: “American authorities are trying to portray this as a sectarian war, but what is happening in Iraq is not a war between Shias and Sunnis.”

“It is indeed the same old hegemonic order using leftovers of the Saddam (Hussein) regime as its key pieces, and the Takfiri dogmatic elements as foot soldiers,” he told judiciary officials, using a term referring to Sunni militants.

Militants of the Islamic State of Iraq and Al Sham (ISIS) have captured swathes of northern Iraq this month, aiming to create an Islamic caliphate which ignores boundaries set by colonial powers a century ago.

The advance has been driven by an amalgam of Sunni tribal and Islamist militias, and former officers of Saddam Hussein’s Baath Party, united in hatred of the Shia-led government, which they accuse of marginalising their sect. But ISIS has spearheaded the revolt and assaults on cities and towns.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has said his countrymen will not hesitate to defend Shia shrines in Iraq if need be, but he has also said, like Khamenei, that Iraqis are capable of doing that job themselves.

Published in Dawn, June 23rd, 2014