RIYADH // Saudi Arabia denied blocking Iranian pilgrims from taking part in this year’s Haj on Thursday after Tehran accused Riyadh of sabotaging arrangements.
The kingdom “welcomes all pilgrims from all over the world and from all nationalities and sectarian backgrounds, and does not stop any Muslim from coming”, the ministry of Haj said in a statement carried by Al Riyadh newspaper.
But the visits must occur “within the system and guidelines that organise Haj affairs.”
Earlier on Thursday Iran said it would not send pilgrims to this year’s Haj, expected in early September, after the two countries severed diplomatic ties this year.
The Haj ministry said Saudi Arabia “did not at all ban Iranian pilgrims from coming. The ban came from the Iranian government which uses this as one of its many means to pressure the Saudi government”.
The Iranian delegation “refused to sign the agreement to finalise preparations for this year’s Haj ... insisting on their demands,” the ministry added.
A delegation from Tehran held four days of talks in Saudi Arabia last month aimed at thrashing out a deal for Iranians to go to Mecca in September. It was the first dialogue between the two countries since diplomatic relations were severed in January.
But with Saudi diplomatic missions in Iran still closed and Iranian flights to the kingdom halted, the talks hit deadlock.
“The arrangements have not been put together and it’s now too late,” said Ali Jannati, Iran’s culture minister. “The sabotage is coming from the Saudis.”
“Saudi officials say our pilgrims must travel to another country to make their visa applications.”
Iran wants Saudi Arabia to issue visas through the Swiss embassy in Tehran, which has looked after Saudi interests since Riyadh broke off ties in January. That decision followed the ransacking of Saudi diplomatic missions in Iran by protesters angry at the kingdom’s execution of a leading Shiite cleric.
Said Ohadi, head of the Iranian Haj Organisation, said Riyadh had also refused to lift a flight ban on Iranian airlines for the pilgrimage.
Another contentious issue was security, after a stampede at last year’s Haj killed hundreds of foreign pilgrims, including 464 Iranians.
Iran and Saudi Arabia are at odds over a slew of regional issues, notably the conflicts in Syria and Yemen, in which they support opposing sides.
The Haj, meanwhile, had been a source of dispute between Riyadh and Tehran even before last year’s stampede. In 1987, Saudi security forces suppressed an unauthorised protest by Iranian pilgrims, prompting a break in diplomatic relations that lasted until 1991.
The official death toll in that incident was more than 400, including 275 Iranians.
Iran also suspended the lesser pilgrimage, Umrah, which can be undertaken throughout the year, in April last year after an alleged sexual assault on two teenage Iranian boys by Saudi police at Jeddah airport.
* Agence France-Presse