An aide to Iraq's most prominent Shia cleric has called on the politicians on both sides of the country's sectarian divide to resolve a government crisis.

Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani's aide Ahmed al-Safi said during a Friday sermon in the holy city of Karbala that the war-ravaged country "cannot bear further tensions among politicians," The Associated Press reported. 

Sistani, revered among Iraqi Shia Muslims, normally exerts his influence through sermons and statements made by his aides.

The crisis erupted last month after the Shia-led government issued an arrest warrant against the Sunni vice president on terrorism charges. In protest, the Sunni-backed bloc has been boycotting parliament and Cabinet sessions.

On December 19, 2011, an investigative committee within Iraq's Interior Ministry issued an arrest warrant for Tariq al-Hashemi after three of his bodyguards made confessions of taking orders from him to carry out the terrorist attacks. 

Hashemi later fled to the Kurdistan region. 

He is one of the leaders of the Iraqiya party, which holds 82 of the 325 seats in the Iraqi parliament. 

Maliki has demanded that President of the Kurdistan region Massoud Barzani and Iraqi President Jalal Talabani hand Hashemi over to the Iraqi judiciary in the capital Baghdad. 

Last week, Maliki said that the Iraqiya party wants to transfer the trial of Hashemi to the northern city of Kirkuk. 

“We view this as a serious threat to the independence of the juridical system.” 

“We cannot have a credible system if we let the politicians interfere. Baghdad is the appropriate trial location in this case,” Maliki added. 

Hashemi denies the accusations against him and claims that the judiciary in Baghdad is “not free.” 

“It would not be right to be tried in Baghdad and I do not suppose a fair decision would be given in the capital,” Hashemi said.

On Tuesday, Hashemi said that he feels “indebted” to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan for supporting him. 

He told the Turkish Anatolia News Agency that he feels “indebted to Erdogan for making statements on my case.” 

“Two months ago I told Erdogan that Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki cornered me in the Green Zone and seized my office with armored vehicles and tanks. Erdogan dealt with my case specifically,” Hashemi said. 

Erdogan and Maliki held a telephone conversation on January 10, in which the Turkish premier expressed “concern” over the political situation in Iraq and called on authorities in Iraq to end “sectarian and ethnic polarization” in Iraq, according to Turkish media. 

However, the Iraqi premier later said that the “statements [by Turkish statesmen] interfered in domestic Iraqi affairs.”