Khamenei, the ultimate arbiter in Shiite Iran, called on fellow Muslims to re-evaluate Saudi rulers’ management of the faith’s holy sites.
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“Accursed tree of tyrants should be stripped of Hajj duties”, the Leader said, wondering: ” if Al Saud were not to blame in Mina incident, then why they denied access of an independent inquiry? “They are children of the Magi and their hostility towards Muslims is ancient”.
A general view shows Muslim pilgrims circling the Kaaba, Islam’s holiest shrine, at the Grand Mosque in Saudi Arabia’s holy city of Mecca, on September 6, 2016.
Saudi Interior Minister and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef said on Tuesday said Iran was attempting to “politicise” the Hajj and reaffirmed the country’s commitment to keeping pilgrims safe during this year’s holy Muslim ritual of Hajj to prevent accidents.
Iranian pilgrims are not allowed to take part in this year’s hajj, however, following the failure in May of negotiations over safety measures and other arrangements for Iranian pilgrims, aimed at preventing a recurrence of the fatal 2015 stampede, which killed more than 400 Iranians. Saudi Arabia beheaded 28 hajj organizers in response to the tragedy.
Ayat. Khamenei stressed that another horrific aspect of the Mina stampede was the “deadly silence of the so-called human rights entities”; “Those who have put their faith and hopes into worldwide communities and organizations should learn a lesson from this bitter truth”, he said.
Ayatollah Khamenei on Monday said in comments published on his website that 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”.
The Iranian chief executive highlighted Riyadh’s support for terrorism, adding that the regime is “practically spilling the blood of Muslims in Iraq, Syria, and Yemen through its crimes in the region”.
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”. He accused the kingdom of “murdering” pilgrims during last year’s Hajj, when hundreds and by some accounts thousands were crushed in a stampede, many of them Iranians. Even before last year’s stampede, he writes, “Tehran has been involved in many incidents that led to the death of pilgrims”.
Iran’s theocratic regime sees itself as the vanguard of Shia Islam, similar to how the Saudis, practitioners of a particular orthodox Wahabist brand of the faith, style themselves as the leaders of the Sunni world.
Al Arabiya is itself a Saudi media outlet, so it can not be taken as an unbiased source.
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They can also contact officials through the app on 132 from Qatar or by calling 8003040444 from Saudi Arabia.
