DHAKA: A Twitter account Iran experts believe is run by the office of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in comments apparently inspired by Iraq’s turmoil, accused Sunni militants on Thursday of wanting to bring about a war in the Muslim world.

Shia Iran has been alarmed by rapid territorial gains made in Iraq by the militants of the ‘Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant’ (ISIL), which seeks a caliphate ruled on mediaeval Sunni Muslim precepts in Iraq and Syria.

ISIL’s advances pose a threat to the survival of Shia-majority Iraq as a united country. Iraqi prime minister Nuri al-Maliki’s Shia-led government, an ally of Teheran, has called for military help from the United States, Iran’s longtime foe.

A message posted in English on the Twitter account #khamenei-ir said the Sunni militants wanted to foment distrust between Sunni and Shia Muslims, a goal they shared with ‘arrogant’ powers, normally an Iranian codeword for the United States and its Western and Israeli allies, reports The Straits Times.

BDST: 1630 HRS, JUNE 19, 2014