Iran May Resume Sending Pilgrims to Syria’s Religious Sites: Official
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Head of Iran’s Hajj and Pilgrimage Organization Saeed Ohadi is slated to make an official visit to Syria to hold talks over the resumption of pilgrimage to the Arab country’s holy sites.
“Due to the huge demand from those interested in making pilgrimage to Syria and their requests to the Hajj and Pilgrimage Organization… assessing the security situation in Syria has been put on the agenda,” Ohadi was quoted by the official website of the organization as saying on Sunday.
“Accordingly, a delegation will make a trip to Syria today (Sunday) to examine the (local) amenities as well as security situation in the country,” he noted.
Syria has been gripped with civil war since March 2011 with Takfiri terrorists from various groups, including the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), currently controlling parts of it.
According to the United Nations, more than 220,000 people have been killed and one million wounded in the conflicts.
Before the deadly civil war began in the Arab country, thousands of devoted Iranian Shiites made pilgrimage trips to Syria every year to visit the holy shrines of Hazrat Zeynab and Hazrat Ruqayya on the outskirts of the Syrian capital, Damascus.