Thousands of Iranians protest against Saudi Arabia’s ruling family shouting “death to Al Saud the traitors” as the annual Hajj pilgrimage to the Saudi city of Mecca gets underway.
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The Leader urged the Muslim world to know the Saudi rulers and truly realize the reality of their unfaithful and materialistic nature, saying they “must think of a fundamental solution for the management of the Two Holy Mosques and the issue of Hajj”.
Iranian Foreign Ministry’s spokesman Bahram Qassemi has called on the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council to stop supporting Saudi Arabia’s stance on regional crises.
The Saudi government said 769 people died in the stampede in September of previous year, as crowds walked to perform the ritual of stoning the devil in Mina, a site on the outskirts of Mecca. The kingdom has never addressed the discrepancy, nor has it released any results of an investigation authorities promised to conduct over the disaster.
Last year’s stampede was the worst ever in Hajj history.
Said Ohadi, the head of Iran’s Hajj Organization, told AFP that the Saudis’ failure to provide adequate security and make other accommodations for the Iranian faithful was “unacceptable”, especially given the 15-20 year waiting list to participate.
Tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran periodically have simmered and cooled since Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution installed its Shiite cleric-ruled democracy.
Bamachan overcame numerous hardships, cycling over thousands of kilometers of mountainous terrain, in order to perform this year’s Hajj pilgrimage.
The stampede killed at least 2,426 people, according to an Associated Press count. Iran claimed 600 of its pilgrims were killed and said police fired machine-guns at the crowd.
Relations between the two countries hit a new low earlier this year when they failed to reach a deal on arrangements for Iranian citizens attending this year’s pilgrimage.
The Saudi officials turned from being merely unsuccessful whose sins may be repented into real criminals who arrogantly refuse to apologize to the victims’ families to the extent that King Salman insolently congratulated the crown prince for his “success” in administering the pilgrimage season in 2015 despite Mina tragedy. The kingdom’s stewardship over Islamic holy sites gives it major influence in the Muslim world.
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During Friday’s protests, demonstrators also shouted slogans against the USA and Britain, long targets of suspicion among Iranian hard-liners.
