TEHRAN: Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Sayed Ali Khamenei Monday said that the Islamic world must fundamentally reconsider the management of hajj due to "Saudi rulers’ oppressive behavior towards God’s guests".
In a thunderous message to the Hajj pilgrims posted on the Leader's official website on Monday, Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei described the ritual pilgrimage as a “heavenly, earthly, divine and communal obligation”.
“The world of Islam, including Muslim governments and peoples, must familiarise themselves with the Saudi rulers and correctly understand their blasphemous, faithless, dependent and materialistic nature,” he said.
“Because of these 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.”
Some 60,000 Iranians took part last year, but have been effectively barred from this year's event after negotiations between the two countries fell apart.
Iranian leader accused Saudi Arabia's ruling family, who are the custodians of Islam's holiest sites, of politicising the pilgrimage.
"Those who have reduced hajj to a religious-tourist trip and have hidden their enmity and malevolence towards the faithful and revolutionary people of Iran under the name of “politicizing hajj”, are themselves small and puny satans who tremble for fear of jeopardizing the interests of the Great Satan, the U.S.
"Saudi rulers… who have blocked the proud and faithful Iranian pilgrims' path to the Beloved’s House, are disgraced and misguided people who think their survival on the throne of oppression is dependent on defending the arrogant powers of the world, on alliances with Zionism and the US and on fulfilling their demands," he wrote.
This month's hajj will be the first time in almost three decades that Iranian pilgrims have not participated.
Ayatollah Khamenei was also fiercely critical of the Saudi response to a deadly stampede during last year's hajj, which killed several thousand foreign pilgrims, including an estimated 464 Iranians.
“Several thousand families from different countries lost their loved ones and their nations were bereaved. From the Islamic Republic, close to five hundred people were among the martyrs. The hearts of their families are still broken and bereaved and our people remain grief-stricken and angry.”
"Instead of apology and remorse and judicial prosecution of those who were directly at fault in that horrifying event, Saudi rulers – with utmost shamelessness and insolence – refused to allow the formation of an international Islamic fact-finding committee," he said.
“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 was also critical of Saudi Arabia’s regional role, which has seen the two countries be pitted on opposite sides of conflicts including Syria, Yemen, Iraq, and Bahrain.
The Iranian leader accused Riyadh of “forming and arming wicked takfiri groups… that have plunged the world of Islam into civil wars” in reference to militant organisations including the ISIS or Daesh.
"The fitna-promoting rulers who by forming and arming wicked takfiri groups, have plunged the world of Islam into civil wars, murdering and injuring the innocent and shed blood in Yemen, Iraq, the Levant, Libya and other countries".
Iran has regularly accused Saudi Arabia of being behind ISIS but Riyadh has consistently rejected these allegations, stating that they have been victim of attacks by the group and have led far-reaching operations against their militants.
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