Iran presses Saudi over more than 340 missing pilgrims

It said 321 Iranians are still missing.

“The report said the presence of the prince in the middle of the population prompted a change in the direction of the movement of the pilgrims and a stampede“, Iran-owned Press TV said.

He said Saudi authorities blocked a road used by hajj pilgrims to allow a royal convoy to pass through, causing the fatal convergence in the town of Mina on the outskirts of Mecca.

There is no doubt about the former diplomat’s legal entry into Saudi Arabia, she added.

Iranian officials escalated their criticism of Saudi Arabia’s Hajj pilgrimage after at least 717 were killed in a stampede near the holy city of Mecca last week.

About 2000 pilgrims died in the Thursday crush when performing religious rites.

The September 24 stampede that led to people being crushed and trampled to death was the worst loss of life at the hajj since 1990 when more than 1,400 people were killed in a similar incident. “That is an increase of 52 on the previous figures”, Saudi health minister Khalid al-Falih told a news conference.

Iran will continue pursuing the issue seriously as long as all its missing pilgrims are accounted for, Amir Abdollahian underlined, expressing Tehran’s readiness to help accelerate the process.

President Hassan Rouhani appealed for United Nations mediation with the Saudis, in a meeting with UN chief Ban Ki Moon in New York, state television reported.

Hundreds of demonstrators protested in the Iranian capital, chanting “Death to the Saudi dynasty”.

In a statement he said most of the Pakistani pilgrims who embraced martyrdom in the deadly incident have been identified.

Pakistani officials said on Monday that the death toll of its nationals from the stampede during the pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia has reached 36. As for the things that humans can not control, you can not blamed for them.

King Salman ordered a safety review and the interior ministry assigned 100,000 police officers to secure the area and manage crowds.

However Saudi’s regional rival Iran has hit out against the kingdom’s handling of the haj and has demanded an apology.