DHAKA: Sectarian tension between Shia and Sunni Muslims is probably the most serious threat to world security, according to Iran’s foreign minister.

Speaking to the BBC, Mohamed Javad Zarif blamed some Sunni countries for what he called ‘fear-mongering’.

‘Some people have fanned the animosity for short-sighted political interests,’ he said.

Syria, Iraq and Pakistan are among the countries currently grappling with a surge in sectarian violence.

Zarif said conflict between Sunnis and Shias was ‘the most serious security threat not only to the region but to the world at large’.

‘I think we need to come to understand that a sectarian divide in the Islamic world is a threat to all of us.’

BDST: 1757 HRS, NOV 11, 2013
RoR/SRS