Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, meanwhile met with families of victims and survivors of the Mina stampede and reiterated his demand that Saudi Arabia’s ruling Al Saud family properly investigate the disaster, IRNA reported.
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Iranians have been blocked from the event after talks on safety and logistics fell apart in May.
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.
In comments to the Makkah newspaper, the top Saudi cleric was quoted as saying that Khamenei’s remarks are “not surprising” because Iranians are descendants of “Majuws”- a term that refers to Zoroastrians and those who worship fire.
– “Inappropriate and offensive” -The week began with a furious rebuke from Khamenei, published on his website, in which he accused the Saudi royals of “murder” over the deaths of almost 2,300 pilgrims, including hundreds of Iranians, in last year’s stampede.
A coalition of Gulf nations on Wednesday also criticized Khamenei. Zoroastrianism is a monotheistic religion predating Christianity and Islam and was the dominant religion in Persia before the Arab conquest. ‘The Muslim world, including governments and Muslim countries must know Saudi leaders and really understand the reality of their sacrilegious, infidel, dependent and materialistic nature.
The Sept. 24, 2015, stampede and crush of pilgrims killed at least 2,426 people, according to an Associated Press count based on state media reports and officials’ comments from 36 of the over 180 countries that sent citizens to the hajj.
“Particularly when it comes to the pilgrimage and religious discourse, then it has quite damaging effects on sectarian relations around the world”.
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.
In January, tensions between longtime rivals Iran and Saudi Arabia soared after the kingdom executed a prominent Saudi Shiite cleric.
Iranian pilgrims are not taking part in this year’s hajj, a ritual required of all able-bodied Muslims at least once in their life. They back opposing sides in Syria’s civil war and a list of other conflicts across the Middle East.
A former senior United States foreign policy official, John Hannah, last month cited Gulf sources in an article for Foreign Policy magazine, saying that “the Saudis did in fact go out of their way to make Iranian attendance hard”.
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His claims could not be independently verified.
