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Iran's President Hassan Rohani yesterday warned that Muslim states which funnel petrodollars to jihadist Sunni fighters wreaking havoc in Iraq will become their next target.
Rohani did not name any country, but officials and media in mainly Shia Iran have hinted that insurgents from the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) are being financially and militarily supported by Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
"I advise Muslim countries that support the terrorists with their petrodollars to stop," Rohani said in remarks reported by the website of Iran's state broadcaster.
"Tomorrow you will be targeted... by these savage terrorists. Wash your hands of killing and the killing of Muslims," he added. ISIL militants have seized a swathe of Iraqi territory in a lightning offensive, with the Baghdad government's security forces hard-pressed to prevent the advance.
Riyadh has warned that Iran-ally Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki is steering Iraq towards civil war through policies that exclude the country's Sunni minority.
Iran, the predominant Shia powerhouse in the Middle East, says it will support Maliki against ISIL, which is also battling the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, another Tehran ally.
Rohani meanwhile called for unity between "Shiites and Sunnis who are brothers".
"For centuries, Shias and Sunnis have lived alongside each other in Iran, Iraq, the Levant, Lebanon, the Persian Gulf and North Africa... in peaceful coexistence," he said.
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