Reiterating a point made on Tuesday by King Salman, Prince Faisal said Saudi Arabia does not interfere in Iran’s internal affairs “but we don’t permit the holy sites and the hajj to be used for political ends”.
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It coincides with Eid Al Adha, the feast of sacrifice marked by Muslims worldwide.
The pilgrims congregated from sunrise at the site and the vast plain which surrounds it, about 15km from Mecca.
One of the five pillars of Islam, the hajj must be performed at least once in a lifetime by all Muslims who can afford the costly and hard trip.
The air campaign, which later expanded to include ground operations across Yemen, is meant to undermine the Houthis and their allies and restore power to resigned president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, who now resides in Saudi Arabia.
Pilgrims from Iran are not attending the hajj this year, after talks between the two Middle East powers over hajj arrangements broke down in May.
Muslim pilgrims pray on the Mountain of Mercy during Haj.
Some 769 Muslim pilgrims died in a stampede during the stone-throwing ritual in last year’s Hajj, according to Saudi official figures. The six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council, of which Saudi Arabia is the most powerful member, accused Iran of “a desperate attempt to politicise” the hajj and said Khamenei´s remarks were offensive.
In one of the deadliest disasters to befall the annual Muslim rite in decades, the crush a year ago killed almost 800 pilgrims, according to Riyadh, though counts by countries of repatriated bodies showed that more than 2,000 people may have died, more than 400 of them Iranians.
This day “is the one time during the hajj when roughly all pilgrims are in the same place at the same time”, the wire service adds, and the pilgrims hail from more than 160 countries.
The pilgrims spend the day on the Arafat plateau in supplicating to God to forgive their sins.
There they collected pebbles in the dark before retreating for the night into Mina, the narrow city of air-conditioned white tents where last year’s crush occurred as pilgrims moved to throw their pebbles in a ceremonial stoning of the devil.
Iran cancelled the participation of its pilgrims in this year’s Hajj pilgrimage due to Saudi Arabia’s efforts to create obstacles in the way of Iranians seeking to perform the rituals.
For the first time in years, Saudi Arabia’s Grand Mufti Abdul Aziz al-Sheikh did not give his traditional Haj sermon at Arafat. The top Saudi religious authority responded by asserting that Iran’s leaders are not Muslims, and on Sunday he condemned Iran’s alternative destination.
“The Saudis organise everything for us”.
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Instead of Saudi Arabia, Iranians headed to Karbala in south West of Baghdad where the shrine of Hussein, the Prophet’s grandchild and first Shia imam, is located.
