He has not returned to Mina but says he is not afraid and sent his young wife to this year’s pilgrimage.
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He was also briefed on preparations for the safe movement of pilgrims between Muzdalifah and Mina.
Muslims worldwide are celebrating the first day of Eid al-Adha, or “Feast of Sacrifice”, the most important Islamic holiday that commemorates the willingness of the Prophet Ibrahim – also known as Abraham to Christians and Jews – to sacrifice his son before God stayed his hand.
The ritual is expected to be carried out over three days beginning from Monday.
Iran past year reported the largest number of stampede victims, at 464, and its 64,000 pilgrims are excluded for the first time in decades after the regional rivals failed to agree on security and logistics.
For the first time in almost three decades, Iran’s 64,000 pilgrims are not attending the Haj in Saudi Arabia after the two regional rivals failed to agree on security and logistics.
More than 1.8 million faithful, majority from overseas, are performing the six-day hajj, which officially ends Thursday.
Joko Widodo said in a press release that he reached the agreement during a meeting with Saudi Arabia’s Deputy Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman Al Saud on the sidelines of a G20 summit in China earlier this month.
Officials have been issuing pilgrims with bracelets that digitally store their personal data, after some foreign officials expressed concern about difficulties in identifying the stampede dead.
“The issue of safety of pilgrims goes to the heart of the Saudi government’s legitimacy”, as Vali Nasr, author of The Shia Revival, tells Morning Edition.
On Sunday, helicopters monitored the crowd flow from the skies, while on the ground, police directed pedestrians and made sure there were no bottlenecks.
“This year, they have organised the situation better”, said Abdel-Rahman Badr, an Egyptian pilgrim. “We are truly at ease here in Arafat”, Youssef al-Mehri, 24, of Oman said with a prayer rug slung over his shoulder.
Iran had the largest death toll of the stampede, where 461 Iranians were killed during the Stoning of the Satan ritual in Mina due to the mismanagement of the Saudi rulers.
Hundreds of thousands of Iranian faithful held an alternative pilgrimage on Saturday in the Iraqi Shiite holy city of Karbala, according to an official at the shrine of Imam Hussein.
The stoning bridge, which resembles a large multi-storey vehicle park, was erected in the past decade at a cost of more than $1 billion.
Saudi Arabia said on Sunday that it had launched a new television channel to broadcast the hajj rituals in the Farsi language of Iran.
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The hajj is one of the five pillars of Islam and capable Muslims must perform it at least once.
