Iraq's most senior Shia cleric has urged the United Nations not to endorse the country's interim constitution, a Beirut-based aide has said.
The aide, Mr Ahmed Khaffaf, said on Monday Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani had explained his views in a letter dated March 17th to Lakhdar Brahimi, a senior adviser to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. He said Brahimi, who led a recent mission to Iraq, had received the letter yesterday.
Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani
UN officials were not immediately available for comment.
According to a transcript of the letter, e-mailed to Reuters by Mr Khaffaf, the director of Sistani's office in Beirut, Sistani said unless the United Nations rejects the interim constitution, he would boycott a UN team expected to visit Iraq soon to advise on forming an interim government.
"The [Shia] religious establishment fears the occupation authorities will work to include this law in a new UN resolution to give it international legitimacy," Sistani's letter said of the constitution signed this month by Iraq's US-backed Governing Council.
"We warn that any such step will not be acceptable to the majority of Iraqis and will have dangerous consequences," wrote the 73-year-old scholar, who has been assuming a larger role in politics although he does not favour clerical rule in Iraq.
The letter is likely to dismay US authorities determined to hand power to an Iraqi government on July 1st on the basis of the interim constitution, preferably with UN approval.