Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei has warned against enemy plots to turn Islamic Awakening movements into sectarian and ethnic conflicts.

“Western and Zionist intelligence services are seriously and relentlessly pursuing this plot with the help of petrodollars and traitorous politicians from the East of Asia to the North of Africa and particularly in the Arab region,” Ayatollah Khamenei said in an opening speech at the “Scholars and Islamic Awakening Conference” in Tehran on Monday.

The two-day conference brings together some 700 clerics and scholars from Muslim and non-Muslim countries.

Referring to the situation in Libya, Tunisia, Syria, Pakistan, Iraq and Lebanon, the Leader said, “The propaganda by the West and the mercenary and dependent regional media portrays the devastating war in Syria as a Shia-Sunni conflict, creating a safety margin for the Zionists and the enemies of the resistance [movements] in Syria and Lebanon.”

“This is while the two sides of the conflict in Syria are the proponents and opponents of anti-Israel resistance, not Shias and Sunnis,” Ayatollah Khamenei added.

    “‘Insistence on Islamic principles’ and ‘people’s presence in the scene’ are the two key and main factors that will neutralize all the enemies’ plots, ploys and deceit,” the Leader said.

“Islamic Awakening is a truth whose signs can be seen almost all across the Muslim world.”

Ayatollah Khamenei stressed the importance of defining a long-term goal for the Islamic Awakening and said, “This final objective cannot be anything less than creating a brilliant Islamic civilization.”