Sunni Friday Prayers Leader Regrets Absence of Iranian Pilgrims in Hajj
In a letter to King Salman of Saudi Arabia, Molavi Esmaeel Zehi called for facilitating the participation of Iranians in this year’s Hajj.
He urged normalization of ties between Saudi Arabia and Iran and reopening of the two countries’ embassies to pave the way for sending Iranians to Hajj.
In the current conditions where the enemies of Islam seek to foment discord, division and pessimism in the Muslim world, absence of Iranian pilgrims in Hajj is not the interests of the Islamic Ummah, he said.
Molavi Esmaeel Zehi went on to say that Iran and Saudi Arabia, as the two major countries in the Muslim world, can together resolve many of the problems facing the Islamic Ummah.
The letter came a few days after Iran said it will not send pilgrims to Hajj this year because Saudi Arabia is refusing to cooperate on arrangements for Iranians to join the annual rituals in September.
"Conditions are not prepared for conducting Hajj; we have lost the time; we made our utmost effort but the sabotage is coming from the Saudis,” Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance Ali Jannati said on May 12.
An Iranian delegation held four days of talks in Saudi Arabia last month aimed at thrashing out a deal, but with Saudi diplomatic missions in Iran closed since January and Iranian flights to the kingdom halted they hit deadlock.
Saudi Arabia cut diplomatic ties with Iran on January 3 following attacks on vacant Saudi diplomatic perimeters in Tehran and Mashhad by angry people protesting the kingdom's execution of prominent Shia cleric Nimr al-Nimr.
Jannati said the Saudis had mistreated Iranian delegates headed by chairman of Iran’s Hajj and Pilgrimage Organization, Saeed Ohadi, subjecting them to finger-printing among other hostile procedures.
"Their attitude was cold and inappropriate. They did not accept our proposals concerning the issuing of visas, the transport and security of the pilgrims,” Jannati said.
On May 11, Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hossein Jaberi Ansari advised Riyadh against letting its political preferences affect the important Islamic tradition.
Jaberi Ansari said the Saudi government has refused to act on "its recurrent assertions that it would not let political disputes get in the way of the issue of Hajj.”
Iran has been insisting that Saudi Arabia issue visas through the Swiss embassy in Tehran, which has looked after Saudi interests since Riyadh broke off ties in January.
Tehran has said it is ready to swiftly issue visas for Saudi visa officers to perform the procedure at the Swiss diplomatic mission or elsewhere in Tehran, according to Jaberi Ansari.
