BEIRUT: Nearly 90,000 Iranians are expected to attend the Haj in Medina this year, and were due to start arriving on Sunday,
after Tehran boycotted the pilgrimage last year amid tensions with
Saudi Arabia.
Around 800
pilgrims were due to leave Iran on three flights to Medina on Sunday, the director of the haj at Iran’s Haj and Pilgrimage Organization, Nasrollah Farahmand told state media. Approximately 86,500 Iranians are expected to attend the haj in total this year and 800 coordinators have travelled to
Saudi Arabia to help Iranians during the pilgrimage, he said.
Iran boycotted the haj last year
after hundreds of people, many of them Iranians, died in a crush at the pilgrimage in
Saudi Arabia in 2015, and following a diplomatic rift between the two countries who are vying for power and influence in the region.
In a speech to Haj organisers on Sunday,
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said that Iranians would never forget the “catastrophic events” of 2015 and called on
Saudi Arabia to ensure the security of all pilgrims.
"The serious and constant issue for the Islamic Republic is the preservation of the security, dignity, welfare and comfort of all pilgrims, particularly
Iranian pilgrims," Khamenei said, according to his official site.
"The security of the Haj is the responsibility of the country where the two **ble shrines exist. "Riyadh severed diplomatic relations last year
after Iranian protesters stormed the
Saudi embassy in Tehran following the execution of a cleric in
Saudi Arabia in January 2016. In February this year Iran sent a delegation to
Saudi Arabia, which is mostly Sunni, that initiated the process of
Iranian pilgrims returning for the Haj.
However, tensions between the two countries remain at an all-time high. Last month
Iranian officials pointed a finger at
Saudi Arabia after Islamic State carried out attacks on the
Iranian parliament in Tehran and the shrine of the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, that left at least 18 dead.
Saudi
Arabia denied any involvement. Khamenei in his speech on Sunday also called on all
pilgrims to show their reaction to the recent unrest at the Al Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem and "America’s wicked presence in the region" at the Haj, according to his official website. He did **t specify what kind of reaction he expected
pilgrims to show. —Reuters
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