Iran’s Hajj Chief Arrives in Saudi Arabia
Leading a delegation, including Head of the Hajj and Pilgrimage Organization Ali Reza Rashidian, Hojat-ol-Islam Seyed Abdol Fattah Navab arrived at the Prince Mohammed Bin Abdulaziz International Airport at 10:30 PM local time.
Nearly 86,000 Iranians will make the Hajj pilgrimage this year. Hajj is tentatively scheduled to take place between August 8 and 14.
Iran sent 86,000 pilgrims to Saudi Arabia for Hajj in 2018. 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.
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.
Most Commented 