New Delhi: Kashmir’s top cleric Mirwaiz Umar Farooq met Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian in New Delhi and called for greater unity among Muslims in the face of growing Islamophobia and suffering in Palestine, Lebanon and elsewhere.
Farooq said in a statement on X on Sunday that he met Pezeshkian along with a delegation during the Iranian president’s visit to the Indian capital for the BRICS Leaders’ Summit.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and Iran’s Ambassador to India Mohammad Fathali were also present at the meeting.
“I expressed that unity within the Muslim Ummah — not allowing political conflicts or sectarian differences to divide us, amid growing Islamophobia and the immense suffering inflicted upon Iran, Palestine, Lebanon and elsewhere, is the most important safeguard against it,” Farooq said.
He was accompanied by Kashmiri Shia leaders Aga Syed Hassan Mosavi and Imran Reza Ansari.
The delegation also expressed “our solidarity with the people of Iran at this difficult time” and called for an end to what Farooq described as “aggression” against the country amid its war with the United States.
“Confrontation cannot resolve issues,” Farooq said, stressing that dialogue, diplomacy and engagement ultimately offered the way forward.
During the meeting, Farooq also highlighted Kashmir’s centuries-old cultural and historical links with Iran.
As a gesture reflecting those ties, he presented Pezeshkian with a specially crafted walnut-wood model of Srinagar’s historic Jamia Masjid.