The Supreme Leader of Iran has accused Saudi Arabia of “murdering” pilgrims injured in a deadly stampede during last year’s haj and demanded that the kingdom be stripped of its right to oversee Islam’s holiest sites.
Advertisement
Saudi Arabia’s Grand Mufti Abdul Aziz al-Sheikh fired back at Iran on Tuesday in a growing war of words over the hajj pilgrimage, saying Iranians were “not Muslims”, as the country’s armed forces put on a show of force with a military parade.
Instead of being tried as the accused, they acted like the plaintiff and with increased malice and vileness, they revealed their long-standing enmity towards the Islamic Republic and towards any flag of Islam raised to confront kufr and arrogance.
As the two leading powers in the Middle East, Shiite Iran and predominantly Sunni Saudi Arabia are at odds over a raft of regional issues, notably the conflicts in Syria and Yemen in which they support opposing sides. According to an Associated Press count based on official statements from the 36 countries that lost citizens in the disaster, more than 2,400 pilgrims were killed in the incident.
Next week marks the start of the hajj, when millions of Sunni and Shi’ite Muslims from around the world – dubbed “guests of Allah ” – travel to the Mecca, location of Islam’s most revered shrine, the Sacred Mosque, to comply with one of the five pillars of Islam.
Khamenei met with the families of the Hajj pilgrimage stampede victims of 2015 and said: “The Saudis’ failure and incompetence in this incident proves once again that this cursed, evil family does not deserve to be in charge and manage the holy sites”, he was quoted as saying by AFP.
Riyadh broke diplomatic ties when its Tehran embassy was stormed in January over the Saudi execution of a Shia cleric.
In his comments Monday, Mr. Khamenei said Saudi authorities behaved with deliberate cruelty in the disaster, in which 461 Iranians were killed, Iranian officials say.
Tehran has said more than 400 of those dead were Iranian, and blamed the huge toll on mismanagement of the pilgrimage.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has said that Islam of Iranians is different from what the top Wahhabi cleric is preaching.
For the first time in nearly three decades, Iranians will not participate in this year’s Hajj after talks on logistics and security fell apart.
Rouhani says “regional countries and the Islamic world should take coordinated measures to punish the government of Saudi Arabia in order to have a real hajj”.
Advertisement
Wary that some pilgrims may seek to use haj for ideological purposes, Saudi Arabia said it would not tolerate any attempt to politicise haj – remarks widely seen as referring to Iran.
