War of words: Iranian leaders slam handling of safety at Hajj

RIYADH:

The war of words between archrivals Saudi Arabia and Iran over the Hajj stampede escalated on Sunday after Iran’s supreme leader demanded Saudis apologise for the accident that left 769 pilgrims dead and over 900 others injured.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei accused Riyadh of a “blame game”, after the Saudi foreign minister said Iran was playing politics on the tragedy. “Instead of passing the buck, the Saudis should accept their responsibility and apologise to the world’s Muslims and the bereaved families,” he said in comments reported by Iran’s official IRNA news agency.

Iranian leaders have been critical of Saudi authorities’ handling of safety at Hajj, following Thursday’s stampede during a ritual stoning of the devil in Mina. Within hours, Khamenei blamed “improper measures and mismanagement” for the disaster.

At least 144 Iranians have died in the crush – the highest confirmed toll among foreign nationalities. Tehran says 323 Iranians are still missing.

A day earlier, Iranian President Hassan Rowhani used a major United Nations speech to demand an investigation into the stampede.

The fact that he used a UN summit meeting on global development goals to reiterate Iran’s outrage over the tragedy has been seen as a sign that Tehran does not intend to tone down the criticism of its regional rival.

Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al Jubeir, also in New York for the UN General Assembly, said the Iranians “should know better than to play politics with a tragedy that has befallen people who were performing their most sacred religious duty”.

“We will reveal the facts when they emerge. And we will not hold anything back,” Jubeir said, adding the kingdom has a long history of devoting “tremendous resources” to ensure a successful pilgrimage. “I would hope Iranian leaders would be more sensible and more thoughtful with regards to those who perished in this tragedy, and wait until we see the results of the investigation.”

While some media outlets claimed a Saudi prince’s convoy was to blame for the stampede, senior Saudi officials suggested the pilgrims were at fault for not following instructions.

The pilgrims, however, blamed the stampede on police road closures and poor crowd management, during searing temperatures.

King Salman has ordered an urgent safety review into the tragedy, admitting there was a need “to improve” organisation at the pilgrimage attended by almost two million people this year.

The stampede was the second tragedy at this year’s Hajj. A massive construction crane had collapsed on Makkah’s Grand Mosque and killed 109 people a week earlier.

For years, the pilgrimage was marred by stampedes and fires but had been largely incident-free since 2006 after safety improvements and billions of dollars’ worth of infrastructure investments.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 28^th, 2015.