Riyadh to Be Held Accountable for Blocking Iranians from Hajj: Spokesman
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman slammed Saudi Arabia for its refusal to facilitate the travel of Iranian pilgrims to the Arab country for the upcoming Hajj, stressing that Riyadh should be held accountable if it hinders Iranians from making the pilgrimage.
Speaking to the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) on Wednesday, Hossein Jaberi Ansari censured the Saudi regime’s attempts to politicize the issue of Hajj pilgrimage.
He said despite the Saudi government’s claims about its policy of not linking the issue of Hajj with political differences, it has refused to pave the ground for reaching an agreement with Iran about the dispatch of Iranian pilgrims during the upcoming Hajj season.
However, the Iranian spokesman said, “We still have time, and we hope that Saudi Arabia will change its wrong policy and make reaching an agreement possible” in the remaining time.
If not, he added, Riyadh will be held accountable for blocking Iranians from making the pilgrimage.
Head of Iran’s Hajj and Pilgrimage Organization Saeed Ohadi and a number of other officials have in recent weeks held several rounds of talks with the Saudi side on sending Iranian pilgrims to this year’s Hajj.
Tehran has insisted in the talks that visas for Iranian pilgrims should be issued in Iran and that the safety of travelers to Saudi Arabia must be ensured, given the disaster in Mina that killed many 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 tragedy during Hajj.
There have been doubts about participation of Iranian pilgrims in the 2016 Hajj since tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia ran high 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.
