Iran's acting foreign minister Ali Akbar Salehi speaks during a press conference in the Iraqi Shiite holy city of Najaf on following a meeting with top Iraqi clerics on his second day of visit to Iraq aimed at boosting ties between the Shia-majority neighbours. -AFP Photo

NAJAF: Iran's foreign minister courted top clerics in Najaf, the Iraqi religious heartland, on Thursday, the second day of a visit to Iraq aimed at boosting ties between the Shia-majority neighbours.

“I came carrying a letter from the Iranian leadership to the religious authorities in Najaf,” Ali Akbar Salehi told a news conference in the central Iraq Shia shrine city.

“I had a good meeting with (top Iraqi Shia cleric) Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, and I also just finished a meeting with Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Said al-Hakim,” Salehi said.

“And I will meet Grand Ayatollah Bashir al-Najafi and Grand Ayatollah Ishaq al-Fayad in order to give them the message from the Islamic republic,” he said, referring to other senior Shia clerics.

The message “said that the Islamic republic supports the new Iraqi government, and will build relations with Iraq based on non-intervention in its internal affairs, and according to the interests between the two countries,”Salehi said.

“We support security, services and rebuilding in Iraq, and we will stand by Iraq until it gets over this distress,” he added.