Local Editor
The Islamic Republic of Iran is boycotting this year’s Hajj season, for the second time, after the massacre committed by the Saudi security forces against Iranian pilgrims in 1987 which claimed the lives of hundreds of victims.
The execution of the religious Hajj rituals is affected by the tense diplomatic relations between Saudi Arabia and the Islamic Republic due to the continued escalation on behalf of the Saudis, in addition to the kingdom’s puritanical attitude towards Iran.
Saudi Arabia, which spares no effort in violating the sanctity of children and women as it is committing massacres against them in Yemen, does not find it outrageous to prevent tens of thousands of Muslims from performing Hajj, through pressuring and imposing impossible conditions on Iranian pilgrims.
High-level sources confirmed to al-Ahed news website that the Iranian stance to boycott the pilgrimage season this year comes after “impossible conditions” imposed by Saudi Arabia on the Iranian pilgrims, and through which it seeks to “prevent them from Hajj”.
According to the sources, Saudi Arabia required the following:
1 – each pilgrim gets the visa via a third country and not from Iran.
2 – about 60000 estimated Iranian pilgrims are to be transported via third country flights from Iran to Mecca, preventing their transportation by Iranian aircraft.
3 – Saudi Arabia refused Iran’s proposal of a Swiss patronage for the Iranian interests during the Hajj and imposed the services of the Hajj Commission which is a private non-governmental organization. This means that the pilgrims would be without the auspices of the Iranian government or its representative.
Saudi Arabia hides these unmanageable conditions from the media, claiming that Iran is to be accountable for the politicization of Hajj.
The same state which failed to protect the pilgrims in Mina, killing more than 1000 Muslims, claims to have “harnessed all its material resources and human potentials to serve the pilgrims and to ensure their safety and comfort during the performance of Hajj and Umrah,” claiming that “the Iranian officials are to be held accountable for the decision to ban Iranian citizens from attending Hajj, in front of God and the whole world.”
The Saudi cabinet alleages that “the Saudi leadership, government and people welcome and honor the pilgrims of Hajj and Umrah of all nationalities and it does not prevent any Muslim from visiting to the Holy Land”.
Accordingly, al-Ahed sources confirm that the UK refuses to give any Iranian citizen a pilgrimage visa within Iran due to political reasons.
Source: al-Ahed News
