A statement said the ministry had offered “many solutions” to meet a string of demands made by the Iranians who had arrived on Tuesday and performed the minor umra pilgrimage during their visit.
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Iranian pilgrims had to apply for a visa of Saudi Arabia from a third country, which means that Iranians would miss the ceremony this year, he said.
The Iranian government has announced that its citizens will not participate in this year’s Hajj, an Islamic rite for Muslims to Makkah, Saudi Arabia.
On September 14, 2015, a huge stampede in the Mina neighborhood of Mecca killed at least 769 people, including 464 Iranian pilgrims.
The Saudi Council of Ministers said in a previous session that “on the basis of the kingdom’s duties and its responsibility to serve the guests of the House of God, it welcomes and is honoured to serve pilgrims and visitors of all nationalities and does not prevent any Muslim from visiting the holy land”.
On Friday, the Saudi Hajj ministry said Riyadh had agreed to allow Iranians to obtain visas through the Swiss embassy in Tehran, which has looked after Saudi interests since ties were severed in January.
In this Sunday May 29, 2016 photo released by the Saudi Press Agency, SPA, King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, right, receives British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond in Jiddah, Saudi Arabia.
The Council also stressed that Saudi Arabia refuses to politicise the Hajj.
Muslims in Iran are mostly Shi’ites, while Muslims in Saudi Arabia are predominantly Sunni. “Unfortunately, Iranian pilgrims won’t be able to make it to Mecca this year”.
Saudi Arabia also accused Iran of sowing “sedition” in Iraq, urging the Islamic republic to “stop intervening” in the affairs of its neighbors.
The two countries have been locked in a dispute over the issue of Iranians performing Haj, the fifth ritual of Islam.
The ministry clarified that the Kingdom has reiterated its categorical rejection of attempts to politicize Haj rituals.
He added that Iran had refused to agree to a memorandum “to guarantee the security and safety of pilgrims” despite 70 other countries signing the agreement.
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Talks between the two countries have been complicated after Riyadh cut diplomatic ties with Iran as a result of a violent protest that destroyed its embassy in Tehran.
