State TV says 464 Iran pilgrims dead in Saudi hajj disaster

Last week, Tehran also claimed Riyadh had failed to issue visas for Iranian officials who sought to travel to Saudi Arabia to facilitate the repatriation of the dead and the injured.

Iran had accused Saudi Arabia of hindering its efforts to bring home the identified bodies of 239 Iranians who died in the stampede. “He was admitted there since he arrived in Mecca at the beginning of the annual pilgrimage”, reads part of the statement.

Among the hospitals visited by the Embassy and the Tanzania Hajj Mission alongside other groups include, Mecca, Mina, Arafat, Muzdalifa, Jeddah and Taif.

He adds the Saudi kingdom introduces itself as the custodian of the holy mosques, which means the Saudis are expected to shoulder responsibility of the deadly incidents during the Hajj pilgrimages and meet the legitimate demands of Muslim countries in this respect.

Many insisted that the authorities of Saudi Arabia should be held responsible for the massive deaths caused by lack of proper organisation.

“The Saudi government is not carrying out its obligation to repatriate and in a few cases shows slyness”, Khamenei told military commanders in northern Iran in comments broadcast on state TV.

The two regional rivals were already at odds over Iran’s support for Shiite Huthi rebels in Yemen, where a Saudi-led Arab coalition has waged months of air strikes against the insurgents.

Ali Marashi, head of the Iranian Red Crescent medical centre in Tehran said Iran had given up hope that any of those missing were still alive.

CNN reported that Saudi Arabia’s refusal to allow low cargo plane into the Kingdom to retrieve the Iranian Hajj martyrs contributed to the delay. That’s a criticism also levied by Indonesia, the Muslim world’s most populous country. The latest death toll update on Thursday on has almost doubled previous figures.

Saudi Arabia’s health ministry reported on Saturday that the crush and stampede killed at least 769 pilgrims and injured 934, but Pakistan, India, Indonesia and Iran have suggested the true figures could be higher.

More than 64,000 of this year’s two million pilgrims who attended the hajj were from Iran, according to the government.

“We recognize that United Nations agencies and other humanitarian organizations need to freely import humanitarian assistance through Yemen’s seaports and airports and pursue needs-based distribution”, Power said in the letter, dated September 28.