Iran’s ayatollah says Saudis ‘murdered’ survivors of 2015 hajj stampede

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In this September 23, 2015, file photo, thousands of Muslim pilgrims pray outside Namira mosque in Arafat during the annual hajj pilgrimage near the holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia. A day later, more than 2,400 pilgrims would die in a stampede and crowd crush. Photo: AP

Published: 12:58pm, 6 Sep 2016

Iran’s supreme leader has accused Saudi Arabian authorities of having “murdered” Muslim pilgrims who were injured during last year’s hajj stampede.

“The heartless and murderous Saudis locked up the injured with the dead in containers — instead of providing medical treatment and helping them or at least quenching their thirst. They murdered them,” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Monday in a statement on his website marking the anniversary of the disaster. He offered no evidence to support the allegations.

Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince and Interior Minister Mohammed bin Nayef said Iran was attempting to “politicise” the hajj. In comments published later Monday by the Saudi Press Agency, he said Iran had decided not to send its citizens to the pilgrimage this year for domestic purposes. Iran accuses Saudi Arabia of sabotaging negotiations that took place earlier this year regarding the security of pilgrims.

A Muslim pilgrim walks among dead bodies on September 24, 2015, after a deadly stampede at the hajj pilgrimage in Mina, Saudi Arabia. Photo: AP

The September 2015 stampede and crush of pilgrims killed at least 2,426 people, according to an Associated Press count. Tehran has said 464 of the dead were Iranian and blamed the catastrophe on Saudi mismanagement of the annual pilgrimage.

Khamenei has also blamed Saudi Arabia for an earlier crane collapse in Mecca that killed 111 people, and said the kingdom’s rulers had “reduced the hajj to a religious-tourist trip” while accusing Iran of “politicising” the pilgrimage.

A top Saudi official said Khamenei’s accusations reflect “a new low”.