Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei yesterday demanded Saudi Arabia apologize for a stampede that killed nearly 770 pilgrims at the hajj, at least 144 of them Iranians.
“Instead of passing the buck and playing a blame game, the Saudis should accept their responsibility and apologize to the world’s Muslims and the bereaved families,” Khamenei said in comments reported by Iran’s official IRNA news agency.
Iranian leaders have been fiercely critical of Saudi authorities’ handling of safety at the hajj and questioned whether Riyadh was fit to continue organizing the annual pilgrimage.
Photo: AFP
Before Khamenei’s comments, Saudi Arabian Minister of Foreign Affairs Adel al-Jubeir responded to Iran’s criticism, telling reporters in New York that “I believe that the Iranians should know better than to play politics with a tragedy that has befallen people who were performing their most sacred religious duty, which is the pilgrimage.”
Pilgrims suffocated or were trampled to death on Thursday when two massive crowds converged on a narrow street, in the worst disaster to occur during the annual pilgrimage in a quarter-century.
Shiite Iran has accused Sunni Saudi Arabia of mismanaging the pilgrimage, which annually draws about 2 million people from 180 countries.
Iranians comprise the largest group of casualties identified so far. Iranian state TV says a former ambassador to Lebanon, as well as two Iranian state TV reporters and a prominent political analyst are among those still missing. The semi-official Fars news agency said a former ambassador to Slovenia was among the dead.
“Under international law, this incident is absolutely subject to prosecution. The Al Saud must be responsive,” Iranian State Prosecutor Ebrahim Raisi told state TV, referring to Saudi Arabia’s ruling family.
He said Saudi authorities blocked a road used by hajj pilgrims to allow a royal convoy to pass through, causing the deadly convergence in the town of Mina on the outskirts of Mecca.
“They have to know that we will pursue the trial of Al Saud for the crime they have committed against the hajj pilgrims through international courts and organizations,” Raisi added.
Neither Iran nor Saudi Arabia is a state party to the International Criminal Court, and only the court’s prosecutor can file charges. Iran could try to file a case at the International Court of Justice, which handles disputes between nations, but does not mete out criminal justice.
Saudi Arabia has not responded to the Iranian accusations regarding the convoy. Saudi Ministry of the Interior spokesman Major General Mansour al-Turki told the Associated Press that a VIP convoy traveling through Mina on Thursday, which included foreign dignitaries, had nothing to do with the incident and was in a different part of town. He said VIPs use their own roads in Mina.
Iran and Saudi Arabia are bitterly divided on a host of regional issues and support opposite sides in the wars raging in Syria and Yemen. The accusations of mismanagement of the pilgrimage strike at a key pillar of the Saudi Arabian royal family’s prestige — King Salman holds the title of the “custodian of the two holy mosques.”
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani began an address to the UN General Assembly on Saturday by expressing “regret over the heart-rending incident,” emphasizing the “need for swift attention” to an investigation into “this incident and other similar incidents in this year’s hajj.”
Al-Jubeir, speaking to reporters on the sidelines of his meeting with US Secretary of State John Kerry, said that “we will reveal the facts when they emerge. And we will not hold anything back. If mistakes were made, who made them will be held accountable. And we will make sure that we will learn from this, and we will make sure that it doesn’t happen again.”
“I think all of us are really focused on the loss of life and not on pointing fingers,” Kerry said. “I’m glad that the minister has spoken to the accountability Saudi Arabia will engage in.”
Rouhani told a group of editors on Friday that both the stampede and the collapse of a crane on the Grand Mosque in Mecca earlier this month — which killed another 111 people — suggested “ineptitude” on the part of Saudi Arabian authorities.
Meanwhile, the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned the Saudi Arabian representative for a third time in three days to protest Riyadh’s handling of the disaster. State TV said Saudi Arabia has yet to issue visas for an Iranian delegation to visit the kingdom to oversee the treatment of injured Iranians and the repatriation of remains.
The Saudi Arabian Ministry of Health on Saturday said on Twitter that the toll from the hajj disaster stood at 769 pilgrims killed and 934 injured, updating previous figures. It did not provide the nationalities of the dead and injured.
Iranian state TV said 136 Iranian pilgrims were among the dead and 85 were injured, while 344 Iranians remain missing.
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