Riyadh reports 30 per cent rise in Qatari Hajj pilgrims

The number of Qatari pilgrims who travelled to Saudi Arabia for Hajj is about 30 per cent higher than last year despite a political dispute that led to the severing of relations between the two countries.

The governor of Makkah, Prince Khalid Al Faisal, said 1,564 Qataris arrived in Saudi Arabia for the pilgrimage, whereas the number of Qatari pilgrims last year stood at 1,210.

The arrival of Qatari pilgrims has been a subject of controversy this year after Saudi Arabia cut diplomatic and travel ties with Qatar, including the closure of border crossings and barring Qatari aircraft from its airspace. The Saudi decision on June 5 was taken with the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt, to protest against what they say is Qatar’s support of groups and individuals linked to extremism and terrorism.

Qatar denies the accusations and has refused to meet the quartet’s conditions for normalisation of relations.

Doha angered Riyadh further in July by criticising Saudi Arabia’s provisions for Qatari pilgrims to perform Hajj despite the boycott of their country. Foreign minister Adel Al Jubeir accused Qatar of attempting to internationalise the administration of the holy sites in Saudi Arabia and warned this would be considered a “declaration of war”.

But the Saudi monarch, King Salman, last month ordered the opening of the land border to Qatari pilgrims and sent Saudi aircraft to ferry pilgrims from Doha after the intercession of a member of Qatar’s royal family.

Prince Khalid, who chairs the Hajj central committee, said the overall number of pilgrims from abroad had risen this year, to 1,752,014 from 1,325,372 last year. Domestic pilgrims were made up of 126,092 Saudi citizens and 102,936 expatriates, the prince said on Wednesday as the Hajj began.

More than 300,000 Saudi military personnel and civil servants have been enlisted to assist pilgrims this year, Prince Khalid said.