By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
The cleric who led Iranian national prayers on Friday accused Pakistan on Friday of becoming a sanctuary for terrorists and criticized it for holding a regional conference without inviting Iran.
"Pakistan has become a sanctuary of terrorists," said Hojjatoleslam Ahmad Khatami in the sermon at Teheran University that was broadcast live on state media. "It is our neighbor but, little by little, it is losing neighborly manners."
Khatami is a mid-rank cleric of hard-line views who does not represent the government. He is not related to former President Muhammad Khatami, who left office in 2005.
He said Pakistan had given sanctuary to the militants who last month detonated a bomb in Zahedan, a southeastern provincial capital that is near the Pakistani border. The explosion killed 11 members of the elite Revolutionary Guards.