In a sign of the further souring of relations, Iran’s supreme leader and top religious figure within the Islamic Republic’s power structure, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, launched a blistering attack on Saudi Arabia, urging the Ummah, or entire Muslim community, to “reconsider” going on the hajj pilgrimage after Riyadh refused to apologise to Tehran over the deaths of hundreds of pilgrims a year ago.
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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”.
“The Al Saud regime has made some moves over the past years, which are very rare in the history of Islam”, Velayati, who is also an global adviser to Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei, said. He offered no evidence to support the allegations.
He also accused Saudi Arabia’s ruling Saud family – the custodians of Mecca and Medina – of politicizing the traditional Muslim pilgrimage or hajj, which will start at the end of this week.
The September 2015 stampede and crush of pilgrims killed at least 2,426 people, according to an Associated Press count.
Iran, the promoter of Shia Islam, has openly engaged in the regional conflicts, mainly in Syria, Iraq and Yemen, and has been accused of fueling sectarianism to destabilize the Middle East.
Indonesia’s ambassador to the Philippines, Johny Lumintang, told detik.com that large numbers of Indonesians become victims of fraud syndicates that offer opportunities to travel to Saudi Arabia using the unused Hajj quota allocated for the Philippines.
In a furious rebuke over Iranians being blocked from this year’s pilgrimage, Khamenei on Monday asked the Muslim world to challenge Saudi Arabia’s management of Islam’s two holiest sites of Makkah and Madina.
Iranians have been barred from participating in this year’s hajj after talks on logistics and security were unsuccessful. Riyadh broke ties with Teheran following the incident.
Earlier, Saudi officials said Iran had wanted to hold demonstrations while in Mecca.
Lower-ranking Iranian officials have questioned Saudi Arabia’s stewardship of the holy sites before.
Corrections & Amplifications: Saudi Arabia’s execution of prominent Shiite cleric and activist Nemer al-Nemer sparked protests at Saudi diplomatic compounds in Iran.
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“Houthis want to exploit Yemeni pilgrims to reach well-known propaganda goals away from Hajj real objectives”, Prince Mohammed Bin Naif said.
