Following boycott, Iranians to attend hajj
Riyadh: Alleged Qatari call to internationalize holy sites ‘declaration of war’
BEIRUT/DUBAI (Reuters) – Nearly 90,000 Iranians are expected to attend the hajj in Mecca this year 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 hajj at Iran’s Hajj and Pilgrimage Organization, Nasrollah Farahmand, told state media.
Approximately 86,500 Iranians are expected to attend, and 800 coordinators have traveled to Saudi Arabia to help Iranians during the pilgrimage, he said.
Iran boycotted the hajj 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 hajj organizers on Sunday, 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 hajj is the responsibility of the country where the two noble shrines exist.”
Riyadh severed diplomatic relations last year after Iranian protesters stormed the Saudi Embassy in Tehran following the execution of a Shi’ite cleric in Saudi Arabia in January 2016.
In February this year Iran, which is predominantly Shi’ite, sent a delegation to Saudi Arabia, which is mostly Sunni, that initiated the process of Iranian pilgrims returning for the hajj.
However, tensions between the two countries remain at an alltime 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 Aksa Mosque in Jerusalem and “America’s wicked presence in the region” at the hajj, according to his official website.
He did not specify what kind of reaction he expected pilgrims to show.
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister called what he said was Qatar’s demand for an internationalization of the hajj a declaration of war against the kingdom, Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya television said on Sunday, but Qatar denied it made such a call.
“Qatar’s demands to internationalize the holy sites is aggressive and a declaration of war against the kingdom,” Adel al-Jubeir was quoted saying on Al-Arabiya’s website.
“We reserve the right to respond to anyone who is working on the internationalization of the holy sites,” he said.
Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani said no official from his country had made such a call.
“We are tired of responding to false information and stories invented from nothing,” Sheikh Muhammad told Al Jazeera TV.
Qatar did accuse the Saudis of politicizing hajj and addressed the United Nations Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion on Saturday, expressing concern about obstacles facing Qataris who want to attend hajj this year.
Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Bahrain previously issued a list of 13 demands for Qatar, which included curtailing its support for the Muslim Brotherhood, shutting down the Doha-based Al Jazeera channel, closing a Turkish military base and downgrading its relations with Gulf enemy Iran .
On Sunday, foreign ministers of the four countries said they were ready for dialogue with Qatar if it showed willingness to tackle their demands.