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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The ayatollah made the allegation on the anniversary of the stampede, which killed at least 2,426 people, including 464 Iranians, according to an unofficial count.
Riyadh severed diplomatic relations with Tehran in January after protesters attacked its embassy and a consulate in Iran after the execution of a prominent Shia cleric in Saudi Arabia.
Khamenei, in remarks published on his website Monday, said 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”.
Saudi authorities have not released any findings of their investigation into the hajj disaster.
Meanwhile, Iran is fuming over the Saudi Mufti’s statment.
A former senior U.S. foreign policy official, John Hannah, last month cited Gulf sources in an article for Foreign Policy magazine, saying that “the Saudis did in fact go out of their way to make Iranian attendance hard”.
After months of efforts, Iranian Hajj and Pilgrimage Organization announced on May 29, it won’t dispatch pilgrims this year to Mecca.
He further criticized those Muslim states that remained silent about the incident and said the Islamic Republic was the only country that slammed the Saudi government. The Saudis ignored the absolute right of the Iranians to perform Hajj.
Saudi Arabia is expecting a more subdued Hajj and ensuing Eid celebration this year: the global slump in oil prices has led to government spending cuts and a drop in consumer spending, leaving citizens facing their most austere Eid in more than a decade. Some 60,000 Iranians took part last year, but have been effectively barred from this year’s event after negotiations between the two countries fell apart.
“The government of Saudi Arabia must be held accountable for this incident”, Rouhani told a weekly Cabinet meeting. They even refused to return bodies of many victims to their countries and many were buried without their relatives’ consent and even some without any identification.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Wednesday that the “cursed, evil” Saudi ruling family did not deserve to manage Islam’s holiest sites.
Khamenei described the Saudi royal family as “small and puny Satans who tremble for fear of jeopardising the interests of the Great Satan (the United States)”, and called on the Muslim world to end its management of the hajj.
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Saudi Arabia is accused of blocking the path leading to Allah, and raising obstacles against Iranian pilgrims.
