Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani said the Islamic world is currently at a critical juncture, urging all Muslim nations to strengthen unity to counter enemies’ plots, Press TV reported.

Addressing the 29th International Islamic Unity Conference in Tehran on Sunday, Rouhani said enemies and big powers are doing their best to portray Islam as a religion of violence, urging Muslims to take necessary steps to thwart all efforts aimed at depicting Islam as the religion of violence.

The Iranian president added that faced with such plots, "Muslims have no option but to join hands [in unity] and ... choose the right path."

Rouhani stated that a great deal of the ongoing violence, acts of terror and massacre are taking place in the Muslim world, North Africa, the Middle East and West Asia, adding that there must be end to the “intellectual and discourse-based violence.”

The president criticized certain Muslim countries for purchasing great quantities of US arms, and either delivering the weapons to militant groups or using them against other Muslim nations.

Prominent religious figures, ministers and scholars from some 70 countries are participating in the conference, organized by the World Forum for Proximity of Islamic Schools of Thought, in Tehran. The meeting will focus mainly on the existing crises in the Muslim world and will end on Tuesday.

Source: MENA