The four senior Shia Muslim clerics in Iraq have said that armed resistance is not the way to protest against the continued presence of US-led forces.
However, one of them, Sheikh Ali Najafi, said that if foreign troops stayed too long, then the time for peaceful solutions would be over.
The clerics met at the home in Najaf of Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani.
Despite their comments, Saturday has seen another day of violence in both Shia and Sunni areas of Iraq.
The meeting of the group known as the Marjaiya came two days after Ayatollah Sistani's intervention ended a three-week long uprising in Najaf by Shia militiamen loyal to dissident cleric Moqtada Sadr.
Grand Ayatollahs Mohammed Saad Hakim and Ishaq Fayad met Ayatollah Sistani, who returned to Iraq on Wednesday from three weeks of medical treatment in London to force the peace deal.
Sheikh Najafi, the fourth cleric in the Marjaiya quartet, arrived later for a separate audience with Ayatollah Sistani.
BBC Baghdad correspondent Matthew Price says Iraqi Shia Muslims will listen to words of the senior clerics, and most will follow them.