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.
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“Regional countries and the world of Islam should take coordinated actions to resolve problems and punish the Saudi government”, he told a cabinet meeting, according to the IRNA state Newsagency.
He adds: “Not just because Iran and Saudi Arabia may end up in a direct conflict, but because fixing Syria and Iraq, and fighting ISIS, would be impossible if these two countries are at one another’s throats”.
Why did Hassan Rouhani Burst out with anger?
For the first time in nearly three decades, Iranians will not participate in this year’s pilgrimage to Makkah after talks on logistics and security fell apart.
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has accused “heartless and murderous Saudis” of deliberately causing the death of Iranian pilgrims in the 2015 crush on the outskirts of Mecca in 2015 which killed more than 2,000 people.
Abdullatif al-Zayani said the comments were “a clear incitement and a desperate attempt to politicize” the hajj. “It is imperative for the Islamic world to stand up against them and reject the Saudis’ masters, that is the USA and the United Kingdom”.
Through his comments, the Grand Mufti attempted to stress Iranians were Zoroastrianism, a highly dominant belief in Persia until the Muslim Arab invasion.
Top Iranian cleric Ayatollah Nasser Makarem Shirazi on Wednesday said Saudi Arabia’s rejection of Iranian pilgrims this year is “politically motivated”.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has lashed out at Saudi rulers over Mina stampede that claimed hundreds of lives a year ago during Hajj ritual.
Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif responded to Al Sheikh’s remarks with a tweet, linking Saudi Wahabism to the fundamentalist terrorism of the moment: “Indeed; no resemblance between Islam of Iranians & most Muslims & bigoted extremism that Wahhabi top cleric & Saudi terror masters preach”. Their main enemies are the followers of Sunnah (Sunnis).
A former senior USA 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”.
The two countries severed diplomatic relations in January after Saudi Arabia executed a prominent Saudi Shiite cleric and angry Iranian crowds overran Saudi diplomatic missions.
Iran said in May its pilgrims would not attend, blaming Riyadh for “sabotage” and failing to guarantee their safety.
His claims could not be independently verified.
“This is a view that Saudi Arabia’s brand of Islam, Wahabism, holds about Shiites”, Nasr says.
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Thousands of civil servants, security personnel and medics have been conducting drills in preparation for the pilgrimage, which starts this week.
