Saudis Dragging Feet on Hajj Talks: Iranian Official

Speaking to the Tasnim News Agency on Sunday, Saeed Ohadi said Riyadh has been refusing to give Iranian representatives visas for a visit to Saudi Arabia to work out how Iranians would make this year’s Hajj pilgrimage.

Saudis have twice postponed the meetings they had pledged to hold with the Iranian officials for negotiations, he added.

According to Ohadi, the Saudi officials even refused to grant visa via their consulate in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and did not bother to give any explanation for their behavior either.

He said the country’s Foreign Ministry has been informed about the Saudi Arabian authorities’ conduct, their refusal to give visas, and their paradoxical words.

Tehran tries to contact the Saudi Hajj authorities for arranging a meeting for talks about the Iranians’ possible religious visit to the kingdom for this year’s Hajj season, irrespective of political disputes.

Iran insists that the safety of travelers to Saudi Arabia must be ensured, given the disaster in Mina that killed many Iranian pilgrims in the previous Hajj pilgrimage.

More than 460 Iranians were among the thousands of pilgrims who died on September 24, 2015, in a crush in Mina, near Mecca, during the Hajj pilgrimage.

The incident marked the worst ever Hajj-related tragedy.

There have been doubts about participation of Iranian pilgrims in the 2016 Hajj since tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia ran high last month following Riyadh’s execution of prominent Shiite cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, and a subsequent attack by outraged Iranian protesters on the Saudi embassy in Tehran, which resulted in the Arab country’s decision to sever its ties with the Islamic Republic.

Although Iranian officials criticized the embassy attack and those involved in the attack have been brought to justice, Saudi Arabia has cut off all diplomatic relations with Iran.