Speaking at a press conference in Tehran on Sunday, Head of Iran’s Hajj and Pilgrimage Organization Hamid Mohammadi said 86,000 pilgrims from Iran were sent to the Holy Land in 589 batches in this year’s Hajj season.  

He added that the 2018 Hajj was held calmly and safely.

While the Hajj was held successfully and the Saudis’ behavior toward Iranians was good, Iran cannot resume Umrah pilgrimage until its demands are met, he said.

“I cannot decisively say whether or not Umrah pilgrimage will be resumed this year, but I don’t see the current conditions ready for that.”

Back in November 2017, too, Mohammadi saidconditions were not ripe for the country to resume dispatching nationals to Saudi Arabia for performing the Umrah.

“The resumption of the Umrah pilgrimage requires special arrangements and mechanisms and it will take place if Saudi Arabia fulfills them,” he said at the time.

In 2016, 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.

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.

http://iqna.ir/fa/news/3747394