Iranian pilgrims will participate in this year’s annual hajj, Saudi Arabia said on Friday, after an absence last year during tensions between the regional rivals.
“The ministry of hajj and the Iranian organisation have completed all the necessary measures to ensure Iranian pilgrims perform hajj 1438 according to the procedures followed by all Muslim countries,” the official Saudi Press Agency said, referring to this year in the Islamic calendar.
For the first time in nearly three decades Iran’s pilgrims – which would have numbered about 60,000 – did not attend the hajj in 2016 after the two countries failed to agree on security and logistics.
Riyadh and Tehran have no diplomatic relations, and tensions remain as Sunni-majority Saudi Arabia repeatedly accuses Iran of fuelling regional conflicts by supporting armed Shia movements in Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Bahrain.
But the Saudi hajj ministry said on Friday that the kingdom, the birthplace of Islam and custodian of its holiest sites, welcomes “all pilgrims from all the different nationalities and backgrounds”.A Saudi minister held talks with an Iranian delegation about the possibility of Iranian pilgrims rejoining the annual Hajj despite ruptured ties between the two countries, state media reported late Thursday.
Iran and Saudi Arabia have had no diplomatic ties since early last year.
The kingdom’s minister in charge of pilgrimages, Mohammed Bentin, discussed with the Iranians “arrangements concerning participation of the Iranian faithful in this year’s Hajj,” the official Saudi Press Agency said.
It did not give more details but said the meeting took place on Thursday in the Red Sea city of Jeddah.
SPA said the talks occurred in the context of meetings organised by the pilgrimage ministry with various countries about accommodation and other logistics for the Hajj, which will take place around early September.
For the first time in nearly three decades, Iran’s 64,000 pilgrims did not attend last year’s Hajj after the regional rivals failed to agree on security and logistics.
Tensions remain as Saudi Arabia repeatedly accuses Iran of fuelling regional conflicts by supporting armed movements in Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Bahrain.
Iran rejects the accusations and says Riyadh must stop its support for “terrorists” like the Islamic State group and Al Qaeda.
But Saudi media reported in December that Bentin had invited Iran to discuss arrangements for this year’s pilgrimage.
“Iran’s policy is to send pilgrims to the Hajj (this year), of course, if Saudi Arabia accepts our conditions,” Iran’s Culture Minister Reza Salehi Amiri told state television on Wednesday, when he confirmed Iran had sent a team to Saudi Arabia.
“In a letter I’ve written to the Saudi Hajj minister I have specified our conditions,” he said.
“If they accept our conditions, we will definitely send pilgrims (this) year, otherwise the responsibility” will be on Saudi Arabia.
More than 1.8 million faithful took part in last year’s Hajj. The pilgrimage is one of the five pillars of Islam and all Muslims who can must perform it at least once in their lives.
