A number of prominent Iranian officials, including Iran’s former ambassador to Lebanon, were killed in the stampede.
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Bani Sadr stresses that there is a “propaganda war” taking place, alongside actual fighting in the battlefield, and an “economic war” that Saudi Arabia is waging against Iran by pumping excess quantities of crude to drive down prices and suffocate Iran.
“Because of Saudi rulers’ oppressive behavior towards Allah’s guests, the world of Islam must fundamentally reconsider the management of the two holy places and the issue of hajj”, he said.
THE Muslim Media Watch Group of Nigeria has debunked as untrue, the report that three pilgrims arrested among Kwara State pilgrims to this year’s hajj have been executed.
About 60,000 Iranians attended the Hajj died in the stampede near Mecca. This year, the eager and devoted Iranian pilgrims are missed in the Hajj ritual, but they are in attendance with their hearts and they are standing along Hajj pilgrims from across the globe and are concerned about them and pray for them to be spared any harm from the accursed tree of tyrants. He referred to Saudi muftis as “impious and haram-eating … who blatantly issue fatwas against the Book and Sunnah”.
“The Council supports the consistent policy of Saudi Arabia that serves the two Holly Mosques and it promises to prevent any attempts to cause riot among Muslims and to manipulate the pilgrims’ security”.
Grand Mufti Abdulaziz Al Sheikh was quoted on Tuesday, September 6, 2016, by Makkah newspaper as saying that Ali Khamenei’s accusations are “not surprising” because Iranians are descendants of Zoroastrians and are therefore “not Muslims”. The French had hoped to mediate a financial settlement for the Iranian victims of the stampede. “The council thanks the Saudi government for taking all strict and decisive procedures to maintain the security of the country and people whether residents or citizens”, according to the statement.
Before Khamenei’s speech, the website for former president and current head of the Expediency Council Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani published an interview in which he advocated for reaching out to Saudi Arabia.
Sierra Leone plus neighboring Guinea and Liberia were banned from sending Hajj pilgrims during the peak of the Ebola outbreak in 2014.
The television report played up blistering comments by Khamenei calling Saudi leaders “little Satans and apprentice political sorcerers who ignore God and maintain their unholy grip on power” by allying themselves with what he called the world’s arrogant nations, generally a reference to the US and Israel.
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Some 60,000 Iranians took part in last year’s hajj, but it was announced in May that they would not be permitted to take part this year after the two countries failed to agree the hajj memorandum of understanding that is signed annually with more than 70 countries.
