Mina stampede: Iran applauds Saudi efforts

Tehran says at least 144 Iranians were killed during the September 24 stampede, while over 300 others are unaccounted for, including the country’s former ambassador to Lebanon, Ghazanfar Roknabadi, Fars news agency reported.

Relations between Shiite Iran and Sunni-dominated Saudi Arabia were already severely strained by conflicts in Yemen and Syria, and an worldwide agreement on Iran’s nuclear programme.

Frustration has also risen in Indonesia, the world´s largest Muslim-populated nation, where the official death toll reached 59 on Thursday with 74 missing.

Iran had said 239 of its citizens were killed in the crush in Mina, outside the Muslim holy city of Mecca, and that 200 other pilgrims were missing, but on Thursday revised the death toll upwards.

Iran has blamed the stampede on Saudi Arabia, demanded an apology from Riyadh and accused it of hindering efforts to repatriate the bodies.

The parties agreed to ensure that the Iranians who died in the stampede would be sent home as soon as possible, and provide continued care for those hospitalized with injuries.

There is also anger and anxiety elsewhere in the Muslim world.

Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei threatened Saudi Arabia and asked Saudi Officials to return Iranian Hajj Martyrs or else face fierce reaction.

“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. Interior Ministry spokesperson Major General Mansour Turki said police do not close the main pilgrimage routes and no vehicles had passed in areas near the crush any time after early Thursday morning.

Saudi authorities never have released a dislocation of casualties by nationality, however a tally of the quantities of dead released by individual states adds up to more compared to the official figure.

“I believe that the Iranians should know better than to try to make – play politics with a tragic event that has befallen people who were performing the most sacred religious duty, which is the pilgrimage”. “King Salman ordered the formation of a committee to probe the incident during the five-day pilgrimage in which around two million people from more than 180 countries took part”.