Saudi Prince Turki al-Faisal on Sunday rejected the idea of sharing the administration of the annual hajj with other Muslim nations, saying Riyadh considers it “a matter of sovereignty” and a “privilege.”
The senior member of the Saudi royal family spoke as his country faces mounting criticism in the wake of last month’s disastrous crush of pilgrims outside the holy city of Mecca, which killed more than 1,400 people, making it the deadliest annual pilgrimage on record.
Saudi Arabia’s regional rival Iran, which lost the largest number of pilgrims, has accused the kingdom of mismanagement and called for an independent body to oversee the hajj.
The royal Al Saud family, which governs Saudi Arabia and for which the country is named after, derives enormous prestige and legitimacy from being the caretakers of the hajj and Islam’s holiest sites in Mecca and Medina. King Salman, in line with past Saudi monarchs, holds the title of “Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques” in reference to the Grand Mosque in Mecca and the Prophet Mohammed’s first mosque ever built in Medina.
Oversight of these holy places and the hajj “is a matter of sovereignty and privilege and service,” Prince Turki said.
“The kingdom over the years, having gotten over the awful times when pilgrims could not guarantee their travels to the hajj in the old days and all the other factors of disease and crowds and housing and so on, we’ll not give up that privilege or that distinction of being the servants of the two holy places,” he said.
“The people of Mecca are the ones who know best the territory of Mecca and you can’t take that away from the people of Mecca,” he said.
Turki is the most senior Saudi royal to comment publicly to Iranian criticism.
Turki spoke in an interview on Sunday on the sidelines of an event in Abu Dhabi organized by the Beirut Institute think tank.
At least 1,480 pilgrims died when large crowds converged down a narrow street on Sept. 24 in the area of Mina, just outside Mecca.
The death toll is based on a count from official statements from 19 nations whose citizens died in the incident.
However, the death toll given by the Saudi Ministry of Health is 769. Health and security officials have not immediately responded to requests for clarification.
Iran’s death toll of 465 is the highest announced by any country thus far.
The Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Sunday said the death toll among Egyptians climbed from 165 to 177, with 64 still missing.
As thousands of pilgrims headed down narrow streets in Mina, they converged on another large crowd, causing people to trip over one another, fall and suffocate in a chaotic crush that lasted for more than an hour, survivors said.
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