Iran accuses Saudi Arabia of killing injured pilgrims

Saudi Arabia’s top cleric said Iranians are “not Muslims”, after Iran’s supreme leader launched a fresh tirade over the kingdom’s handling of the Hajj pilgrimage, a newspaper reported on Tuesday.

Khamenei, in remarks published on his website Monday, said the “heartless and murderous Saudis locked up the injured with the dead in containers – instead of providing medical treatment and helping them or at least quenching their thirst”.

Because of Saudi rulers’ oppressive behavior towards God’s guests, the world of Islam must fundamentally reconsider the management of the two holy places and the issue of hajj, said Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in his Hajj Message of 2016. He offered no evidence to support the allegations.

After reviewing security forces assigned to protect the Hajj, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef said later Monday that the kingdom had “spared no effort to provide state-of-the-art services for the safety, comfort and security of all pilgrims”.

Negotiations between the two countries over hajj security measures also collapsed earlier this year, prompting Iran to declare it would not be sending any of its citizens to this year’s pilgrimage, which begins this weekend.

Saudi Arabia says Iranian pilgrims are still welcome if they travel from other countries.

In a statement Ayatollah Khamenei said: “Saudi rulers, who have obstructed the path of Allah and have blocked the proud and faithful Iranian pilgrims’ path to the Beloved’s House, are disgraced and misguided people”.

“These accusations are not only unfounded, but also timed to only serve their unethical, failing propaganda”, said Abdulmohsen Alyas, the Saudi undersecretary for worldwide communications and media at the Ministry of Culture and Information.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi said the ministry has formed a committee to investigate the issue and pursue it in global forums, without elaborating.

Iran, Saudi Arabia’s main regional rival, blamed the disaster on organizers’ incompetence.

In January, the predominantly Sunni Saudi Arabia broke off diplomatic ties with Iran, amid a row over the Saudi execution of a prominent Shia Muslim cleric. Preliminary statements suggested the crush was caused when at least two large crowds intersected.