Iran-Saudi war of words heats up ahead of Hajj

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani called on the Muslim world to unite and “punish” the Saudi government for its actions in the region. “If the existing problems with the Saudi government were merely the issue of the Hajj ... maybe it would have been possible to find a way to resolve it and put it in the right direction,” he told a cabinet meeting, according to the IRNA state news agency. 

“Unfortunately, this government by committing crimes in the region and supporting terrorism in fact shed the blood of Muslims in Iraq, Syria and Yemen.” Iranians have been blocked from the annual pilgrimage to Islam’s holiest places in Saudi Arabia, due to start Saturday, after talks on safety and logistical issues fell apart in May. 

Earlier this week, supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei launched a furious rebuke of the Saudi management of the Hajj and holy sites, accusing the ruling family of “murder” over the deaths of nearly 2,300 pilgrims in a stampede during last year’s event. “The hesitation and failure to rescue the half-dead and injured people is also obvious and incontrovertible. They murdered them,” he wrote on his website Monday. The head of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council hit back at Khamenei’s remarks on Wednesday, calling them “inappropriate and offensive... and a desperate attempt to politicise” the Hajj.

Relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia were already at rock bottom before the regional rivals started trading caustic remarks this week. Khamenei described the Saudi royal family as “small and puny Satans who tremble for fear of jeopardising the interests of the Great Satan (the United States)”. 

Saudi’s most senior cleric, Grand Mufti Abdulaziz alSheikh, responded on Tuesday, saying, “We must understand these are not Muslims, they are children of Magi and their hostility towards Muslims is an old one.” “Magi” is a reference to the Zoroastrian religion that was prevalent in Iran before Islam, and is sometimes used as an insult against Iranians. That in turn prompted a surprisingly tough response from Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, normally known for his smooth diplomacy. “Indeed, no resemblance between Islam of Iranians and most Muslims, and bigoted extremism that Wahhabi top cleric and Saudi terror masters preach,” Zarif tweeted.