Supreme leader calls for stronger Iranian military

Saudi and Iranian health ministers have agreed to repatriate Iranian pilgrims killed in last week’s Hajj stampede, Saudi state media said, after Teheran threatened a “fierce” response over delays.

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.

News agency AFP is now reporting a tally of death tolls from 23 countries, mostly from official sources, and has put the number at more than 940.

Saudi Arabia and its coalition allies have repeatedly accused their Shiite rival Iran of arming the Huthi rebels who control swathes of Yemen, including the capital.

Indonesia and Pakistan have reported more dead from the Saudi hajj disaster.

The Iraqi politician also hailed Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei’s stance towards Saudi Arabia after the Mina deaths.

It said, “The government of the kingdom of Saudi Arabia would like to use this medium to clarify the fact that, it care for pilgrims commences as soon as Hajj and Humrah pilgrims arrive into the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and it continues until their departure”.

The Saudi foreign minister said his country is after transparency and investigation into the incident.

Relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia are already severely strained by conflicts in Yemen and Syria and an worldwide agreement on Iran’s nuclear programme. On the other hand, the government said that Saudi Arabia has started issuing information on finger prints of the stampede victims.

General Massud Jazayeri, the deputy chief of staff of Iranian Armed Forces, took the theory a step further by implicating all of Iran’s usual foes.

But there is also anger and anxiety elsewhere throughout the Muslim world.

The catastrophe was the second following a crane fell in the Grand Mosque in Mecca, killing 109 people to hit the area in fourteen days. Gen. Mansour al-Turki told the AP on Tuesday that the photos are of those who died during the entire pilgrimage from a variety of causes and not just at the disaster in Mina.

Fars news agency quoted spokesman for the Culture Ministry, Hossein Noushabadi, as saying that a Saudi plot to kidnap Roknadabi was “a serious possibility”. The statement, however, does not include the number of Iranians injured in the September 24 stampede.