(AINA) -- The Grand Ayatollah Mohammad Bakir al-Nassiri issued a fatwa (religious decree) yesterday stating the Christians whose lives are subjected to threats in the city of Mosul should be provided with aid and patronage, calling on the Iraqi government to take all the necessary measures to protect them. Al-Nassari, who is considered one of the most important clergy in the South, declared in a special interview with the "Aswat al-Iraq" News Agency that it is the duty of every able Iraqi to stand up for the Christians not only in Mosul but wherever they exist in Iraq, describing them as "brothers whose protection is incumbent on every Iraqi."

The Grand Ayatollan praised the Iraqi government's efforts to safeguard the Christians by its swift reaction to the tragedy and also called on the officials to exert more efforts to provide security in the rest of the Iraqi cities.

Al-Nassiri added that targeting the Christians is one link in a chain of conspiracies that the Iraqi people as a whole have been subjected to, and went on to accuse what he called "external and internal powers" of planting the seeds of discord and sedition among the components of the Iraqi people by committing such crimes.