The mufti’s comments came a day after Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei accused Saudi authorities of killing injured Muslims during the Hajj tragedy in Mecca past year in which at least 2,426 people died in a stampede while visiting Islam’s holiest site.
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It came after Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei, in a message to the Hajj pilgrims on Monday, said, “Several thousand families from different countries lost their loved ones and their nations were bereaved”.
Saudi Arabia’s top cleric has said Iranians are “not Muslims”, a day after Iran’s supreme leader denounced its management of the Hajj pilgrimage.
“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”, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said at a cabinet meeting.
Saudi-owned newspaper Asharq al-Awsat said last month the Mecca Development Authority had set up electronic paths and gates to manage crowds heading to Jamarat, the symbolic stoning of the devil where many previous disasters have occurred.
“If they are claiming that they are not guilty in the incident, they should let an Islamic-international fact-finding delegation review and probe the case closely”, Khamenei said.
On social media, Khamenei’s accounts used the hashtag #alSaudHijacksHajj to criticize the kingdom, while reiterating his demand that someone other than the Saudis be in charge of administering the hajj. Al Arabiya’s Turki Aldakhil cites a report in Saudi media stating past year that “the stampede that killed hundreds was caused by a group of around 300 Iranian pilgrims who did not follow instructions from hajj authorities”.
Saudi officials lacked political will to facilitate trip of Iranian pilgrims to that country and did not even follow the least of human principles and political literature during their talks with the Iranian officials, said Head of Hajj and Pilgrimage Organization Saeed Ohadi.
In January, tensions between longtime rivals Iran and Saudi Arabia soared after the kingdom executed a prominent Saudi Shiite cleric.
But Saudi Arabia is anxious that Iranian pilgrims coming from overseas or pro-Iranian pilgrims from other countries could still exploit the gathering to spread anti-Saudi messages.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has accused Saudi authorities of “bigoted extremism” in a war of words over Iran’s exclusion from this year’s hajj pilgrimage.
In a statement, GCC Secretary-General Abdullatif Al-Zayani described accusations by the Supreme Leader of Iran Ali Khamenei’s as “null and disgraceful”.
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