Jeddah // Saudi Arabia on Sunday denounced Iran’s “unacceptable” demands over its pilgrims joining the Haj, after Tehran said its citizens would not be taking part this year because of obstacles raised by Riyadh.
“Iran has demanded the right to organise ... demonstrations and to have privileges ... that would cause chaos during the Haj. This is unacceptable,” Saudi foreign minister Adel Al Jubeir said.
Tehran said earlier on Sunday that Iranians would miss the pilgrimage, which falls in September this year, and accused Riyadh of “blocking the path to Allah”.
The Saudi side had failed to respond to Iranian demands over “the security and respect” of its pilgrims to Mecca, of whom 60,000 took part in last year’s Haj, Iran’s Haj and Pilgrimage Organisation said.
Mr Al Jubeir said Saudi Arabia signed a Haj memorandum of understanding each year with more than 70 countries “to guarantee the security and safety of pilgrims”.
“This year, Iran refused to sign the memorandum,” he said, arguing that Riyadh has agreed to facilitate the travel arrangements of Iranian pilgrims despite having no diplomatic ties or air links.
“It is very negative if Iran’s intention from the start was to manoeuvre and find excuses, in order to prevent its citizens from performing the Haj,” he said.
“If it is about measures and procedures, I think we have done more than our duty to meet those needs, but it is the Iranians who have rejected things.”
Saudi Arabia severed diplomatic ties with Iran and banned Iranian flights after demonstrators torched its embassy and a consulate in January following the kingdom’s execution of a prominent Shiite cleric. The two countries are at odds over a raft of regional issues, notably the conflicts in Syria and Yemen in which they support opposing sides.
Iran’s foreign ministry on Saturday accused Saudi Arabia of politicising the issue of Iranian Haj pilgrims and heightening tensions, a day after an Iranian delegation left the kingdom without finalising an agreement. It was the second attempt by the two countries to reach a deal on the issue after an unsuccessful first round of talks held in April in Saudi Arabia.
Tehran said Riyadh had insisted that visas for Iranians be issued in a third country and would not allow pilgrims to be flown aboard Iranian aircraft.
But the Saudi Haj ministry said it had offered “many solutions” to meet a string of demands made by the Iranians in two days of talks.
Agreement had been reached in some areas, including to use electronic visas which could be printed out by Iranian pilgrims, as Saudi diplomatic missions remain shut in Iran, it said.
Riyadh also agreed to allow some Iranian carriers to fly pilgrims to the kingdom despite the ban on Iranian airlines, the ministry said.
Another contentious issue has been security, after a stampede during last year’s Haj. Iran says 464 of its citizens were among the more than 700 pilgrims who lost their lives.
This would be the first Haj in almost 30 years to take place without the participation of pilgrims from Iran.
Tehran stopped sending pilgrims for three years following clashes during the Haj in 1987 between Saudi security forces and pilgrims that resulted in the death of more than 400 people, most of them Iranian, according to Iran’s Haj and Pilgrimage Organisation.
* Agence France-Presse