Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the influential former Iranian president, on Jan. 15 accused the US of "seeking new adventurism" as Washington stepped up pressure on Tehran over its nuclear programme and Iraq. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei expressed concern that the US was fostering sectarianism.
Meeting Sunni and Shi'ite clerics, Khamenei stressed that unity between Islam's two sects was needed to prevent "these governments" - a reference to Sunni Arab regimes - "taking ...