Iranian pilgrims to join this year’s hajj: Riyadh

Talks pave way for resumption of participation

Iranian pilgrims will participate in this year’s annual hajj, Saudi Arabia said yesterday, despite ruptured ties between the regional rivals. For the first time in nearly three decades Iran’s pilgrims - which would have numbered about 60,000 - did not attend last year’s hajj after Riyadh and Tehran failed to agree on security and logistics. Tensions remain as Saudi Arabia repeatedly accuses Iran of fuelling conflicts by supporting armed movements in Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Bahrain.

But after talks between the two sides, the Iranians will join this year’s ritual which takes place at the beginning of September. “The ministry of hajj and the Iranian organization have completed all the necessary measures to ensure Iranian pilgrims perform hajj 1438 according to the procedures followed by all Muslim countries,” the official Saudi Press Agency said, referring to this year in the Islamic calendar. The hajj ministry said that the kingdom, home to Islam’s holiest sites, welcomes “all pilgrims from all the different nationalities and backgrounds”.

Although the verbal sparring continued, Saudi media reported in December that the Saudi minister in charge of pilgrimages, Mohammed Bentin, had invited Iran to discuss arrangements for this year’s hajj. An Iranian delegation visited Saudi Arabia in February for talks with Bentin. In early March, Iran said there had been progress. “Most of the questions up for discussion have been resolved and a couple of issues are remaining,” Iran’s ISNA news agency quoted Ali Ghazi Askar, the Iranian supreme leader’s representative for hajj affairs, as saying. “If those questions are resolved, we hope pilgrims will soon be sent to Saudi Arabia.” Iran’s Tasnim news agency said on March 5 that the country would send around 80,000 pilgrims this year. — Agencies