Iran holds anti-Saudi protest over hajj stampede deaths

Iranian leaders have been deeply critical of Saudi authorities over 'flawed safety measures that led to the tragedy'

TEHRAN: Iranian authorities organised a demonstration against Saudi Arabia's management of the annual hajj on Friday as it mourned 131 nationals among 717 pilgrims killed in a crush outside Makkah.

Iranian leaders have been deeply critical of the Saudi authorities over what they charge were flawed safety measures that led to Thursday's tragedy.

"Saudi Arabia is incapable of organising the pilgrimage," said Ayatollah Mohammad Emami Kashani, leading the main weekly prayers in Tehran.

"The running of the hajj must be handed over to Islamic states."

Read: Witnesses blame Saudi Arabian officials for Hajj horror

After the prayers, worshippers held a protest against the "mischievous and incompetent regime" in Riyadh, said the Islamic Propagation Coordination Council which organises state-sponsored demonstrations in Iran.

An Iranian protestor holds a picture of Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during a demonstration against Saudi Arabia after 131 Iranian pilgrims were killed in a stampede at the annual hajj, on September 25, 2015 at Enghelab square in Tehran. PHOTO: AFP

Thursday's loss of life was the biggest to hit the annual Muslim pilgrimage in a quarter-century and came just weeks after a crane collapse in Makkah killed more than 100 pilgrims, many of them foreigners.

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei blamed "improper measures" and "mismanagement" by Saudi authorities, who he said "must accept the huge responsibility for this catastrophe".

Shia Iran and Sunni Saudi Arabia are bitter rivals whose relations are already strained by regional conflicts from Syria to Yemen.

The custodianship of the Muslim holy places forms a key plank in the Saudi monarchy's claims to legitimacy.