It all started when the Saudi Sunni cleric Mohammad al-Ureifi attacked the Iraqi Shia Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani in the Friday prayer. Insulting remarks by a Saudi cleric about the most revered Shia cleric in Iraq, Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani, have strained relations between Baghdad and Riyadh. In a Friday sermon in the Saudi capital of Riyadh, a leading Wahhabi cleric, Mohammad al-Ureifi, called Ayatollah al-Sistani an “atheist and debauched”. He also launched an attack on Iraqi Shias accusing them of conspiring with Yemen's Houthis against Saudi Arabia with Iran's support. Meanwhile, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki strongly criticized the Saudi religious institutes after the cleric's remarks. He said Saudi religious institutes had a tendency to launch attacks on Shia clerics due to their hostile attitude towards Shia Muslims, AFP reported. Via News Essentials Later on, Lebanese party Hizballah condemned the Saudi cleric. On The Angry Arab Lebanese American Dr Ass'ad Abu Khalil, on his part, accused the party of being a sectarian party, and wrote a new post on his blog, which describes Al-Sistani as being “the biggest help to the American occupation.” He wrote: Iraqi blogger Iraqi Mojo had a different point of view. He said: