“The management of Hajj has to be handed over. The Saudi rulers have undoubtedly proved not to deserve to manage the Hajj,” Ayatollah Mohammad Ali Movahedi Kermani said in an address to a large gathering of worshippers in Tehran on Friday.
His comments come against a backdrop of international criticism of Saudi Arabia after a September 24 crush of people in Mina, near Mecca, killed around 4,700 people, including 464 Iranians.
Ayatollah Movahedi Kermani also called for the formation of a fact-finding committee, comprised of representatives from different Islamic countries, to make an inquiry about the cause of the Mina tragedy.
Describing the incident as a stain on Al Saud’s character, the cleric recommended the Saudi rulers to strengthen ties with the Muslim community instead of relying on the US.
Earlier on Wednesday, Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei also warned Riyadh that the slightest disrespect for the Iranian Hajj pilgrims or its failure to repatriate the bodies of those killed in the Mina crush will draw Iran’s “severe and tough reaction".
The Islamic Republic of Iran has had respect for fraternity in the Islamic world up to now, showing self-restraint and Islamic politeness, Imam Khamenei said.
“However” Ayatollah Khamenei underlined “they (Saudis) should know that the slightest disrespect for tens of thousands of Iranian pilgrims in Mecca and Medina and failing in their duties to transfer the holy bodies (of pilgrims to Iran) will result in Iran’s severe and tough reaction.”