Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was due to meet later on Wednesday, September 7, with the families of some of the more than 400 Iranian victims of a stampede that killed almost 2,300 pilgrims at last year’s hajj.
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Top Saudi Sunni cleric Abdul Aziz Al Sheikh responded in kind, dismissing Khamenei’s comments as “not surprising” given Iranians are “not Muslims” and “their hostility towards Muslims is an old one”. It is one of several safety measures authorities say they have implemented after, according to data from foreign officials, close to 2,300 pilgrims died during the hajj stoning ritual previous year.
Answering a question on Iranian media and senior officials blaming Saudi Arabia for not enabling Iranian pilgrims to perform this year’s Haj, he said that Saudi Arabia, since its inception, has been serving the Two Holy Mosques, taking care of pilgrims and providing them all facilities to perform Haj rituals in comfort and safety.
The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) denounced Iranian accusations today that have sharply attacked Saudi Arabia over the annual Islamic pilgrimage, the Hajj.
A man holds a banner that reads “God’s curse on Al Saud” during the funeral of pilgrims killed in a stampede during the 2015 hajj pilgrimage, in Tehran, Iran, Oct. 4, 2015.
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. The stampede and security had been on the mind of a pilgrim from Ivory Coast, who gave her name only as Mrs Coulibaly, 49.
Following their actions, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei Saudi Arabia they will receive the “divine punishment”.
In response, the Saudi Grand Mufti said Khamenei’s comments were “not surprising”, as the Iranians are the descendants of the Zoroastrians, a religious group that had assimilated elements of Islam and Christianity before being conquered by the Arabs.
In January, relations were severed again after Iranian demonstrators torched the Saudi embassy and a consulate following the kingdom’s execution of a prominent Shiite cleric. Iranians are furious after early this year they were deprived of their annual pilgrimage.
“Unfortunately, this government – by committing crimes in the region and supporting terrorism – in fact shed the blood of Muslims in Iraq, Syria and Yemen”, Rouhani added.
The Hajjis, or pilgrims, wear simple white clothes to perform the same acts of worship and renew their sense of objective in the world.
Iran argues 464 of its citizens were killed in the September 24, 2015 Mina stampede.
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Animosity between Sunnis – who make up an estimated 85-90% of Saudi Arabia’s population – and Shia – about 90-95% of Iran’s population – goes back to a 7th Century schism.
