Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Wednesday warned that the latest declaration of Islamic state by Sunni extremists is a threat to the entire region.
"Daash (Arabic first letters of the Islamic State in Iraq and Levant ISIL) has turned to be caliphate state and this is a message to the states in the region that you have become within the red circle. Daash was speaking about a state in Iraq and Sham (Levant), now it is speaking about caliphate in the region," Maliki said in his televised weekly speech.
Late in June, the ISIL which seized large areas in Syria and in Iraq formally declared the establishment of the caliphate Islamic rule in both countries and demanded allegiance from all Muslims.
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic State, was declared the caliph or religious ruler of the new rule system of caliphate, according to an online audio recording which was made on the first day of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
The new caliphate is an attempt to revive the system of Islamic religious ruling which ended about 100 years ago with the fall of the Ottoman Empire during the World War I.
"The Islamic State decided to establish an Islamic caliphate and to designate a caliph for the state of the Muslims," Abu Mohammed al-Adnani, spokesman of the Islamic State, said in the recording.
Al-Adnani called on Muslims everywhere, not just those in areas under the group's control, to swear loyalty to al-Baghdadi and support him.
"The Jihadist cleric al-Baghdadi is the caliph of Muslims everywhere," al-Adnani said, adding that "listen to your caliph and obey him. Support your state, which grows every day."