Saudi Arabia’s most senior cleric, Grand Mufti Abdulaziz al-Sheikh, also waded into the dispute, telling the Makkah daily on Tuesday: “We must understand these are not Muslims, they are children of Magi and their hostility towards Muslims is an old one”.
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Khamenei also accused Saudi authorities of “murdering” Iranian pilgrims during last year’s Hajj stampede, branding the Saudis as “puny Satans who trembled in fear of…the Great Satan [the United States]”.
Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, fired back by accusing Riyadh of stoking “sedition and wars” in Syria and Yemen.
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.
Iranian pilgrims will be unable to attend the haj this year after talks between the two countries broke down in May.
Iranians are furious after early this year they were deprived of their annual pilgrimage.
Al al-Sheikh’s remarks drew an acerbic retort from Iran’s Foreign Minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, who said they were evidence of bigotry among Saudi leaders.
Jeddah, Sep. 8 (BNA): Iranian hajj pilgrims hailing from outside Iran including journalists, reporters and media men said the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has exerted maximum efforts in the provision of all means to serve all hajj pilgrims regardless of nationality or origin. “They are trying to hijack people from all over to bring dishonor, but in fact all Islamic countries are with Saudi Arabia as it carries out its duties and responsibilities”, said the minister, in comments carried by Okaz newspaper.
The kingdom’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef reiterated those concerns on Monday, saying Iran wanted to “politicise hajj and convert it into an occasion to violate the teachings of Islam, through shouting slogans and disturbing the security of pilgrims”.
“The government of Saudi Arabia must be held accountable for this incident”, President Hassan Rouhani told a weekly Cabinet meeting, according to the AP.
The official Saudi toll of 769 people killed and 934 injured has not changed since September 26.
Tensions have escalated between Saudi Arabia and Iran in recent months – particularly in January, when Iranian protesters ransacked the Saudi Embassy and set fires inside after Saudi authorities executed outspoken Shi’ite cleric Nimr al-Nimr.
The General Directorate of Passports stated that 1,245,203 pilgrims arrived by air, 65,594 by land, while the number of those who came by sea stood at 12,723 pilgrims.
The pilgrims crowded into Mecca’s sprawling, air-conditioned Grand Mosque to walk around the Kaaba – which Muslims across the globe face while they pray.
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Khamenei met families of Iranians killed in last year’s disaster on Wednesday and called for a fact-finding committee to investigate the cause of the crush.
