Rouhani further lambasted Saudi authorities for their “tactlessness and ineptitude” in overseeing the Hajj pilgrimage previous year, when thousands of Muslim pilgrims, including 465 Iranians, died in a human crush.
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Iran boycotted the hajj for three years between 1988 and 1990 after clashes between Iranian pilgrims and Saudi police in 1987 left around 400 people dead.
At least 2,297 pilgrims were killed in the crush, according to figures from foreign officials in more than 30 countries.
The reference to the Zoroastrian religion that prevailed in Iran before Islam is used by fundamentalist Sunnis as an insult against Iranians.
Riyadh and Tehran are at odds over a raft of regional issues, notably the conflicts in Syria and Yemen in which they support opposing sides.
For the first time in nearly three decades, Iranians have been blocked from the annual pilgrimage to Islam’s holiest places in Saudi Arabia after the regional rivals failed to agree on safety and logistical issues.
Iran is particularly opposed to the Saudi monarchy’s close relationship with Washington and Israel.
“The Iranian authorities don’t want the Iranian pilgrims to come here for reasons concerning the Iranians themselves, ” Saudi state news agency SPA quoted the crown prince as saying.
The GCC countries expressed surprise at Khamenei’s statement, which they said included “indecent words and offensive descriptions that should not be issued from the heart or the tongue of any Muslim, as well as a leader of an Islamic state”.
“This incident proves once again that this cursed, evil family does not deserve to be in charge and manage the holy sites”, Khamenei said.
The hajj, a religious duty for able Muslims and one of the largest pilgrimages in the world, routinely attracts more than 1.5 million Muslims from around the world.
Riyadh severed diplomatic relations with Tehran in January after protesters attacked its embassy and a consulate in Iran after the execution of a prominent Shia cleric in Saudi Arabia.
In his comments Monday, Mr. Khamenei said Saudi authorities behaved with deliberate cruelty in the disaster, in which 461 Iranians were killed, Iranian officials say.
Negotiations between the two countries regarding security arrangements for this year’s Hajj collapsed in May, leading Iran to declare that it will not send its citizens on the pilgrimage that begins at the end of this week.
Khamenei also blamed Saudi Arabia for an earlier crane collapse in Mecca that killed 111 people, and urged Muslims around the world to reconsider Saudi Arabia’s custodianship and management of Islam’s holiest sites in Mecca and Medina where the hajj is performed.
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He published the comments ahead of this month’s annual Hajj pilgrimage to Makkah in Saudi Arabia.
