The Vatican office issued a statement on the historic meeting between Pope Francis and Iraq's top Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani in the holy city of Najaf.

Iraq's senior shi‘ite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani condemned on Thursday U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital. '‘This decision is condemned and decried, it hurt the feelings of hundreds of millions of Arabs and Muslims,‘' said a statement from Sistani's office.

Iraq's top Shi‘ite cleric opposes the secession of the Kurdistan region in northern Iraq, his representative said in a Friday sermon on his behalf, in the religious leader's first comments on the Kurds' decision to back independence in a referendum.

Sihekh Abdullah Al-Dakkak denied news circulated on news websites, about a call conducted between the religious authority Ayatollah Sayed Ali Sistani, and Bahrain King, over the trial of Sheikh Isa Qassim.

Bahrain’s leading Shia cleric Ayatollah Sheikh Isa Qassim received phone call from Grand Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Al-Sistani.