TEHRAN – Garand Ayatollah Naser Markaem Shirazi said on Wednesday that Saudi Arabia has politicized hajj in order to compensate for its failures in Yemen, Syria and Iraq.

Saudi Arabia has been the main financier and military supporter of militants fighting the Syrian government. These militants who have been claiming they seek to overthrow the Assad government have committed unspeakable crimes against civilians.

Likewise, the Saudi regime launched an offensive against Yemen since March 2015 which some human rights bodies have described as war crimes.

‘Private property’

On Sunday, Iran officially announced that it has canceled decision to send pilgrims to hajj as Saudi Arabia had refused to give guarantees on the safety of Iranian pilgrims.

Ayatollah Markaem Shirazi said the Saudis have turned the holy shrines in Mecca and Medina into “their own private property”. 

The grand ayatollah said when the Iranian Hajj and Pilgrimage Organization and also officials noticed that Saudi Arabia, under different pretexts, wants to impose some conditions on Iran, which were against national dignity, decided to cancel hajj for this year.

Speaking to his theology students in the shrine city of Qom, the grand ayatollah also said the Friday prayer leaders of Medina and Mecca have launched a serious anti-Shia campaign calling Shia “pagan” and du to this reason even if Iran had reached an agreement with the Saudi government on the pilgrimage the Iranians would have been insulted by the young Saudis who have been provoked by “infidel muftis”.

The ayatollah defended the decision by the officials to cancel hajj as he said a “surprising” anti-Shia sentiment has been launched in Saudi Arabia which would have put Iranians in danger.

The decision not to send pilgrims was a “divine expediency”, he noted.

The grand ayatollah also suggested that the holy shrines in Mecca and Medina should managed by a team of competent religious scholars from different Islamic states.

He said this goal will not be realized soon but suggested that this idea should be pursued so that ulema take the holy the shrines out of the control of a group of “prejudiced”, “Wahabi” and “even takfiri” fanatics.

He predicted that Saudi officials will finally be forced to delegate the authority of the holy shrines to religious scholars from Islamic world.

The decision not to send pilgrims to hajj came after several rounds of talks between Iranian and Saudi officials failed to produce a result.

Iranian Culture Minister Ali Jannati said on Sunday that “no pilgrims would be sent to the Muslim holy sites of Mecca and Medina, because of obstacles created by Saudi officials.”

A disproportionate number of Iranian pilgrims died in a stampede in Mena last year. An independent investigation by The Associated Press put the death toll at 2,411. Of this number 464 were from Iran.

PA/PA