Iran's policy of meddling in people's religious life as well as pushing Shiite Islam is "a dangerous thing," the head of the Presidency of Religious Affairs (DİB), Mehmet Görmez, said on Tuesday.

Speaking to Sabah daily after his two crucial visits to Iran and Saudi Arabia when tensions escalated, he said he paid those visits and left the current rift in a "peaceful and nonconflictual atmosphere for the short term."

He said: "I have made calls for sobriety both in Iran and Saudi Arabia. Saying it to the Iranians' faces, I have clearly indicated that they should not touch the religious fabric of the places to where they provide service and that the ambition for the Shiitezation of people is a dangerous thing. In Saudi Arabia, I have said that we need to reconsider the violence-inclined aspects of the Salafi understanding of Islam and need to see the cost of denouncing Sufism as heresy."

"We need to work on how Muslims should be prepared for the new century by dealing with the problems sourced from politics, law, the people and religious understanding in the mid-long term," he said.