Iran pushes for its cleric to be Grand Ayatollah of Iraq

Shahroudi, 63, is being positioned to succeed Iraq's top spiritual leader Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, triggering fears in an already shaky region that Iran's long-term goal is to transplant its Islamic Revolution to Iraq, New York Times reported.

If Iran's plans work out it would give Tehran a direct line of influence over the Iraqi people.

The NYT quoting sources in Iraq's main Shiite city Najaf said al-Sistani was ailing and frail at 81 and jockeying for his succession had quietly begun.

The succession, a lengthy and opaque process in which the outcome is by no means assured, could shape the interplay of Islam and democracy not only in Iraq, where Shiites are the majority, but also across a Shiite Muslim world that stretches from India to Iran, Lebanon and beyond.

Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani's prescriptions for daily living are imbued with the force of law among the majority of the world's 200 million or so Shiites who follow him, his religious teachings are sacrosanct and his political sway is powerful.

As a temporal guide, he has championed Iraqi democracy, insisting on direct elections from the earliest days of the occupation, and warned against Iranian-style clerical rule.

But in sharp contrast to him, Iraqi-born Shahroudi has spent most of career leading the Iranian judiciary and remains a top official in the government there.