Daily Times

RIYADH: Top cleric of Saudi Arabia on Tuesday said that the Iranians were not Muslims, after Iran’s leader launched a fresh outburst over the kingdom’s handling of the Hajj pilgrimage, a newspaper reported.

“We must understand (that) they are not Muslims and their hostility towards Muslims is old, especially with the people of Sunna,” Grand Mufti Abdul aziz al-Sheikh told Makkah daily.

The mufti’s comments came a day after Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the Muslim world should challenge Saudi Arabia’s management of Islam’s two holiest sites in Makkah and Madina.

The verbal sparring – ahead of the Hajj which this year starts on Saturday – follows months of tension between the Sunni-dominated Saudi Arabia and its Shia regional rival Iran.

Khamenei said that because of the Saudi rulers’ oppressive behaviour towards God’s guests, the world of Islam must fundamentally reconsider the management of the two holy places and the issue of Hajj.

He lambasted Riyadh’s response to last year’s Hajj stampede that killed 2,297 pilgrims, according to a toll compiled from foreign officials. Iran said its nationals accounted for 464 of the dead.

Khamenei said Riyadh failed to prosecute those at fault for the stampede and accused the Saudis of showing no remorse. “Riyadh also refused to allow an international Islamic fact-finding committee,” he said.

For the first time in almost three decades, Iranians will not participate in this year’s Hajj after talks on logistics and security fell apart. Riyadh said that Tehran made ‘unacceptable’ demands – including the right to organise demonstrations.

Prince Mohammed reiterated those concerns and charged Iran of trying to politicise Hajj and convert it into an occasion to violate the teachings of Islam – through shouting slogans and disturbing the security of pilgrims.

Saudi Arabia, however, said that the Iranian pilgrims are still welcomed if they travel from other countries. Riyadh and Tehran are at odds over a raft of regional issues, notably the conflicts in Syria and Yemen in which they support opposing sides.

Riyadh severed diplomatic relations with Tehran in January after protesters attacked its embassy and a consulate in Iran after the execution of a prominent Shia cleric in Saudi Arabia.