Custodian of Islam’s most revered places, Saudi Arabia stakes its reputation on organizing haj, one of the five pillars of Islam which every able-bodied Muslim who can afford to is obliged to undertake at least once.
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Saudi Arabia’s most senior cleric denounced Iranians as “not Muslims” as the rival powers traded insults over the most important religious pilgrimage in Islam.
The hajj stampede caused a new flare-up in tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia, regional rivals that back opposite sides in the civil wars in Syria and Yemen. Critics of Saudi Arabia’s management have long complained about inadequate accommodations, insufficient food and shelter for the throngs of pilgrims, and poor crowd control. Khamenei has also blamed Saudi Arabia for an earlier crane collapse in Mecca that killed 111 people.
The UK Guardian reports that the Saudis are attempting to address some of these complaints, including increased use of surveillance cameras, more staff with better training, better coordination with hajj missions from other countries, and electronic wristbands for visitors, which will help the authorities monitor crowd movements and detect risky buildups.
“This is the area we have to concentrate on, to make sure pilgrims.comply with it once they get there”. Tehran has said 464 of the dead were Iranian and blamed the catastrophe on Saudi mismanagement of the annual pilgrimage.
About 60,000 Iranians attended the Hajj died in the stampede near Mecca.
“The government of Saudi Arabia must be held accountable for this incident”, Rouhani told a weekly Cabinet meeting.
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But Saudi Arabia is anxious that Iranian pilgrims coming from overseas or pro-Iranian pilgrims from other countries could still exploit the gathering to spread anti-Saudi messages.
