Nearly 1.5 mn people begin annual haj in Saudi

Eshrat Kordestani, the flag-bearer of the team, attended the ceremony in a white clothing, similar to an Ehram, worn by female Hajj pilgrims.

It is one of the first rites of the pilgrimage, which is among the largest religious gatherings in the world.

General view of the Kaaba at the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Saudi Arabia September 9, 2016.

They are separate from the 177 Indonesians who were intercepted at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport when they were about to board a flight to Madinah in Saudi Arabia supposedly to proceed to Makkah for the pilgrimage, reported Philippine Star.

Jeddah-Iranian pilgrims who had successfully landed in Saudi Arabia for this year’s Hajj pilgrimage kept on presenting irrefutable evidence on the extent of falsehood blighting the Iran regime.

On the contrary, If some people were killed in Europe, the same global bodies would announce public mourning for them and the European leaders would converge to find a solution for the incident, whereas they simply put an end to thousands of innocent lives in Mina previous year because they did not serve their dirty financial benefits and the illegitimate support they receive from Saudi regime.

For the first time in nearly three decades, Iranians will not participate in this year’s pilgrimage to Makkah after talks on logistics and security fell apart.

In 2006, more than 360 people were killed in a stampede in the same area. “This is my sixth haj and I still can not express how happy I am to be in Mecca”, said Mr Hassan Mohammed, 60, from Egypt. The pilgrimage is required of all Muslims to perform once in their lifetime.

More than 1.4 million pilgrims from overseas are expected to join in excess of 100,000 from inside Saudi Arabia.

This includes expansion of the Grand Mosque whose complex houses a plaza of white stones stretching for hundreds of metres (yards). They will head to an area called Arafat on Sunday for the pinnacle of the pilgrimage, an emotional day of repentance and supplication.

Tens of thousands of Iranians are absent from this year’s hajj because of long-running tensions between their Shi’ite nation and Sunni-dominated Saudi Arabia.

Hamid previously served as chairman of the top consultative Shura Council and was appointed to the Supreme Judicial Council before serving as a royal adviser.