Baghdad celebrates Quds Day with photos of Iranian ayatollahs

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Baghdad celebrated Quds Day with hundreds of people coming out to the streets holding photos of Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Hosseini Khamenei and of deceased Iranian Islamic Republic founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
 
“The photos of Khomeini and Khamenei that were raised during the Al-Quds Day parade on Friday are used for religious purposes, because those two people are considered religious people and not politicians,” Hassan Khallati, the spokesperson of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, told Rudaw. “Raising their photos on this day is normal.”
 
“Those who mix this issue with politics aim to create sectarian division and sedition among the Iraqi people,” he said.
 
However, not all were pleased with Iranian leaders being featured so prominently in Iraq.  
 
“This is a violation of Iraqi sovereignty, because those two individuals are the supreme leaders in their country,” Iraqi MP Khaled Al-Mafraji, the leader of the Coalition of National Forces, told Rudaw.
 
“Why did they not raise the photos of Iraqi religious leaders instead of Khomeini and Kamenei?” he asked.