Iran’s president called on the Muslim world on Wednesday to “punish” Saudi Arabia following last year’s hajj crush and stampede that killed over 2,400 people, the latest criticism by Iran ahead of the annual pilgrimage. Saudi’s grand mufti countered by claiming that Iranians are “not Muslims”.
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Earlier on Monday, in a message to the Hajj pilgrims, Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei strongly slammed “murderous” Saudi rulers for refusing to allow an global probe into Mina tragedy, urging Muslims to “correctly understand their (Saudis’) blasphemous, faithless, dependent and materialistic nature”.
“They must not let those rulers escape responsibility for the crimes they have caused throughout the world of Islam”, Khamenei said, listing Saudi Arabia’s involvement in conflicts in areas including Iraq, Yemen and Syria on the side of forces Iran opposes.
Their confrontational comments mark a sharp escalation in the countries’ faceoff as their spat plays out across the region.
“The heartless and murderous Saudis locked up the injured with the dead in containers instead of providing medical treatment and helping them or at least quenching their thirst”, he said.
The Saudis called the accusations unfounded and the kingdom’s top cleric hit back on Tuesday, saying Iranians “are not Muslims”.
“We must understand these are not Muslims, they are children of Magi and their hostility towards Muslims is an old one”.
“If the existing problems with the Saudi government were merely the issue of the hajj. maybe it would have been possible to find a way to resolve it and put it in the right direction”, he told a cabinet meeting, according to the IRNA state news agency.
Saudi authorities have not released any findings of their investigation into the hajj disaster.
Iranians have been blocked from the annual pilgrimage to Islam’s holiest places in Saudi Arabia, due to start Saturday, after talks on safety and logistical issues fell apart in May. He also said Saudi rulers promote sectarian strife and arm “wicked takfiri groups” – a reference to extremist Sunni militants who denounce other Muslims as heretics and non-believers.
The spokesman also reminded bin Nayef -Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, first deputy prime minister and the minister of interior at the same time- to recall his government’s failure to protect the security of Hajj pilgrims and provide an explanation for the tragic incident.
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In January, tensions between longtime rivals Iran and Saudi Arabia soared after the kingdom executed a prominent Saudi Shiite cleric.
