Iran’s Decision on Umrah to Be Based on Outcome of Talks with Saudi Arabia
Asked by IQNA at his weekly press conference in Tehran on Monday about the possibility of Iranians’ participation in Umrah pilgrimage this year, Bahram Qassemi said Hajj affairs are the responsibility of the Hajj and Pilgrimage Organization.
Like previous years, the head of the organization and his counterparts in other Muslim countries have been invited to Saudi Arabia for talks on next year’s Hajj, he noted.
“We should now wait and see in what areas there will be agreements (between Iran and Saudi Arabia) and what policies should be adopted (according to the outcome of the talks)”, Qassemi added.
Umrah is an Islamic pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia, performed by Muslims that can be undertaken at any time of the year, in contrast to Ḥajj which has specific dates according to the Islamic lunar calendar.
Head of Iran’s Hajj and Pilgrimage Organization Ali Reza Rashidian on Sunday left for Saudi Arabia for talks on Hajj.
Iran sent 86,000 pilgrims to Saudi Arabia for Hajj this year. In 2017 some 85,000 Iranians made the pilgrimage.
A year earlier, more than 1.8 million pilgrims attended Hajj but Iranians stayed at home after tensions between Riyadh and Tehran boiled over following a deadly crush of people during the 2015 pilgrimage.
Iran has not sent pilgrims to Saudi Arabia for Umrah since 2015.
On September 24, 2015, thousands of people lost their lives in the deadly crush after Saudi authorities blocked a road in Mina during a ritual, forcing large crowds of pilgrims to collide.
The crush was the deadliest incident in the history of the pilgrimage. According to an Associated Press count based on official statements from the 36 countries that lost citizens in the disaster, more than 2,400 pilgrims were killed in the incident.
Saudi Arabia claims nearly 770 people were killed, but officials at Iran’s Hajj and Pilgrimage Organization say about 4,700 people, including over 460 Iranian pilgrims, lost their lives.
