Ayatollah Khamenei Claims Saudis ‘murdered’ hajj pilgrims

On Monday, the supreme leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei claimed that the Saudi regime ‘murdered’ the thousands killed in last year’s ‘hajj disaster’.

In a statement to mark the anniversary of the event on his website, Khamenei claimed: ‘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’, in reference to the nearly 2,500 pilgrims who were killed in a massive stampede when crowds got out of control.

The Ayatollah also called for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to be replaced as the main administrator of the Hajj, a right it claims in the royal style the ‘Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques’, which was adopted when it took over the territory containing the holy sites, Makkah and Medina, from the Ottoman Sultanate in the early 20^th Century.

Khamenei claimed that 464 of those killed in the stampede were Iranian he also and the Saudi regime for an earlier incident when 111 people were killed when a crane collapsed.

Khamenei’s outburst comes during a period of prolonged but heightened tensions between the two Gulf States, over issues as far reaching as ideological hostilities as well as more specific differences over regional conflicts.

In response to the Ayatollah, Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, criticised the statement by claiming it was an effort to ‘politicise’ the Hajj.