DUSHANBE, May 30, Asia-Plus – Iran and Saudi Arabia have reportedly failed to reach deal on Hajj this year.
Some international media outlets report that Iran has said its pilgrims would not attend the annual hajj pilgrimage, blaming regional rival Saudi Arabia for “sabotage” and failing to guarantee the safety of pilgrims.
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia, which oversees the pilgrimage to Mecca by more than 2 million Muslims from around the world, accused Iran of depriving its citizens of the religious duty by refusing to sign a memorandum reached after talks with Iran’s Hajj and Pilgrimage Organization.
According to
The Guardian
, Iran’s Hajj and Pilgrimage Organization said in a statement carried by state media on Sunday, “Due to ongoing sabotage by the Saudi government, it is hereby announced that … Iran’s pilgrims have been denied the privilege to attend the hajj this year, and responsibility for this rests with the government of Saudi Arabia.”
Reuters
reports that Saudi media earlier said an Iranian delegation had left the kingdom without an agreement over the haj, the second time the two countries have failed to reach a deal.
Saudi Arabia has blamed Iran for the impasse.
“Saudi Arabia does not prevent anyone from performing the religious duty,” the Saudi foreign minister, Adel al-Jubeir, said at a news conference with his visiting British counterpart, Philip Hammond, according to
Reuters
.
“Iran refused to sign the memorandum and was practically demanding the right to hold demonstrations and to have other advantages … that would create chaos during hajj, which is not acceptable,” he added.
Meanwhile, Iran’s Minister of Culture Islamic Guidance, Ali Jannati, said the issue of ensuring the safety of pilgrims was paramount for Tehran following the death of hundreds of Iranian worshippers last year.
Islamic Republic News Agency
(
IRNA
) reported on May 24 that Ali Jannati has criticized Saudi conduct of Iranian pilgrims in Hajj and said this year”s Hajj will be possible in case of due cooperation by the Saudi government, but, unfortunately, over the past few months, Saudi government continued procrastination.
Saudis try to politicize Hajj, making procrastination on the way, thus blocking presence of Iranian pilgrims in Hajj,
IRNA
reported.
Eight months after the last haj, Saudi Arabia has still not published a report into the disaster, at which it said over 700 pilgrims were killed, the highest death toll at the annual pilgrimage since a crush in 1990,
Reuters
reports, noting that Iran boycotted the haj for three years after 402 pilgrims, mostly Iranians, died in clashes with Saudi security forces at an anti-U.S. and anti-Israel rally in Mecca in 1987.
Relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia have soured since hundreds of Iranians died in a crush in last year’s hajj, and after Riyadh broke off diplomatic ties when its embassy in Tehran was stormed in January after the Saudis executed a Shia cleric.
The dispute is yet another area of discord between the Sunni monarchy of Saudi Arabia and the Shia republic of Iran, which back opposing sides in Syria and other conflicts across the region.
