BAGHDAD, March 26: Iraq’s interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi said on Saturday Shia religious leaders should stay out of politics — an unprecedented criticism of the powerful clergy. “Thrusting the religious establishment into daily political affairs could distance it from its guiding role and disrupt relations between the political forces, which could create an imbalance,” his National Accord Party said in a letter sent to Shia and Kurdish politicians. “Everyone must agree on the role of the religious leadership in the interim period,” it said. State-owned Al Sabah newspaper published the letter. Public criticism of Ayatollah Ali al Sistani, Iraq’s most influential Shia leader, is almost unheard of in the country. It could deepen a political crisis sparked by the failure so far to form a government after the Jan 30 elections. The criticism comes as Kurdish and Shia parties, which between them have the two-thirds majority needed to form a government, are struggling to decide on a cabinet and top jobs.

Ayatollah Sistani, who lives in Najaf, has never met Mr Allawi, a secular Shia.—Reuters