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Iran confirms Saudi invitation to resume pilgrimage

January 10, 2017 at 1:24 pm

Iranian officials confirmed receiving an official invitation from Saudi Arabia yesterday to attend this year’s Hajj, having dismissed reports last week of a similar invitation to discuss the resumption of Iranians’ participation in the annual pilgrimage.

The representative of Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Khamenei for Hajj, Sayyed Ali Ghazi Askar, said on Monday that Iran had “officially received Saudi Arabia’s invitation to meet and hold bilateral talks on the Hajj.”

He added that the talks would focus on accommodation, transportation, safety, medical care, visas and banking, and that Iran would respond to the invitation over the next few days.

Iran boycotted the pilgrimage last year after hundreds, mostly Iranian nationals, died in a crush at the 2015 pilgrimage.