This story is from September 7, 2016

the annual haj pilgrimage

logistics fell apart

war of words

'Evil' Saudi royals don't deserve to manage holy sites

criticised Saudi Arabia

crush last year

Sons of "magus"

"Bigotry"

DUBAI: The bitter war of words between Iran and Saudi Arabia intensified on Wednesday ahead offrom which Iranians have been excluded for the first time in decades.Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei blasted the "incompetence" of the Saudi royal family as he met with the families of victims of a deadly stampede during last year's haj Iranians have been blocked from the event after talks on safety andin May.Theon the eve of the mass pilgrimage will deepen a long-running rift between the Sunni kingdom and the Shia revolutionary power. They back opposing sides in Syria's civil war and a list of other conflicts across the Middle East.Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khameneiover how it runs the haj after akilled hundreds of pilgrims. He said Saudi authorities had "murdered" some of them, describing Saudi rulers as godless and irreligious.Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Wednesday that the "cursed, evil" Saudi ruling family did not deserve to manage Islam's holiest sites.Meeting with the families of victims of a deadly stampede during last year's haj pilgrimage, Khamenei said: "The Saudis' failure and incompetence in this incident proves once again that this cursed, evil family does not deserve to be in charge and manage the holy sites.""If they are telling the truth and are not at fault in this incident, they should let an Islamic international fact-finding committee closely examine and clarify the truth of the issue," Khamenei said, according to a transcript of his comments published on his website."Even if this was not deliberate, this much impertinence and incompetence is an offence for a political ruling system."Responding to a question by Saudi newspaper Makkah, Saudi Arabia's Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdulaziz Al al-Sheikh said he was not surprised at Khamenei's comments."We have to understand that they are not Muslims ... Their main enemies are the followers of Sunnah (Sunnis)," Al al-Sheikh was quoted as saying, remarks republished by the Arab News.He described Iranian leaders as sons of "magus", a reference to Zoroastrianism, the dominant belief in Persia until the Muslim Arab invasion of the region that is now Iran 13 centuries ago.Al al-Sheikh's remarks drew an acerbic retort from Iran's foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, who said they were evidence of bigotry among Saudi leaders."Indeed; no resemblance between Islam of Iranians & most Muslims & bigoted extremism that Wahhabi top cleric & Saudi terror masters preach," Zarif wrote on his Twitter account.Saudi authorities normally seek to avoid public discussion of whether Shias are Muslims, but implicitly recognise them as such by welcoming them to the haj, and by accepting Iranian visits to the Saudi-based Organisation of Islamic Cooperation.Tensions between the two countries have been rising since Riyadh cut ties with Tehran in January following the storming of its embassy in Tehran, itself a response to the Saudi execution of dissident Shia cleric Nimr al-Nimr.Custodian of Islam's most revered places in Mecca and Medina, Saudi Arabia stakes its reputation on organising haj, one of the five pillars of Islam which every able-bodied Muslim who can afford to is obliged to undertake at least once.Riyadh said 769 pilgrims were killed in the 2015 disaster, the highest haj death toll since a crush in 1990. Counts of fatalities by countries who repatriated bodies showed that more than 2,000 people may have died, more than 400 of them Iranians.Iran blamed the 2015 disaster on organisers' incompetence. Pilgrims from Iran will be unable to attend haj, which officially starts on September 11, this year after talks between the two countries on arrangements broke down in May.The split between Islam's main sects dates to a dispute among Muslims over who would rule their community after the death of the Prophet Mohammad, and Shias still regard his descendents as a line of imams blessed with divine guidance.Today such disagreements over history remain emotive points of tension between the sects, but they are also divided over day -to-day issues including differing interpretations of Islamic law and the role and organisation of the clergy.In the Wahhabi teaching of Sunni Islam followed by the Saudi clergy and government, Shia doctrine about imams is seen as incompatible with the concept of a monotheistic God.</s>MPs call on Government to suspend arms sales to Saudi Arabia

Britain must suspend arms sales to Saudi Arabia as it appears the country is committing war crimes in Yemen and it "seems inevitable" that they involve UK weapons, a group of MPs has apparently said in a leaked draft report.

According to BBC Two's Newsnight, the Commons Committees on Arms Export Controls said in a draft report: "The weight of evidence of violations of international humanitarian law by the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen is now so great that it is very difficult to continue to support Saudi Arabia while maintaining the credibility of our arms licensing regime."

The Government has faced sustained pressure to suspend the sale of weapons to the country amid claims that international humanitarian law (IHL) has been breached in fighting between the Yemeni government, backed by Saudi Arabia, and Shiite Yemeni rebels.

According to Newsnight, the committee said in its draft report: "The weight of evidence is now so great that the UK should suspend arms sales to Saudi Arabia for use in Yemen until an independent and international inquiry can establish the truth."

The programme quoted the draft report as saying it "seems inevitable that any violations of international law by the Saudi-led coalition would involve arms supplied by the UK".

It adds, according to the programme: "While doubt and uncertainty about IHL compliance in Yemen exists, the default position of the UK should not to be to continue to sell weapons."

The claims come after Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson on Monday defended the selling of arms to Saudi Arabia for potential use in Yemen's bloody civil war, insisting the export of weapons to the country would continue.

The Foreign Secretary said the Government found there was not a "clear risk" that weapons were being used to violate IHL.

His comments followed the Government's admission that it wrongly published statements assuring the Commons that IHL assessments regarding Saudi Arabia had been passed when they had not been carried out.

The Government said the original statements resulted from error and were not a deliberate attempt to mislead Parliament</s>The war of words on the eve of the mass pilgrimage will deepen a long-running rift between the Sunni kingdom and the Shi'ite revolutionary power. They back opposing sides in Syria's civil war and a list of other conflicts across the Middle East.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in a message published on Monday, criticized Saudi Arabia over how it runs the haj after a crush last year killed hundreds of pilgrims. He said Saudi authorities had "murdered" some of them, describing Saudi rulers as godless and irreligious.

Responding to a question by Saudi newspaper Makkah, Saudi Arabia's Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdulaziz Al al-Sheikh said he was not surprised at Khamenei's comments.

"We have to understand that they are not Muslims ... Their main enemies are the followers of Sunnah (Sunnis)," Al al-Sheikh was quoted as saying, remarks republished by the Arab News.

He described Iranian leaders as sons of "magus", a reference to Zoroastrianism, the dominant belief in Persia until the Muslim Arab invasion of the region that is now Iran 13 centuries ago.

Al al-Sheikh's remarks drew an acerbic retort from Iran's Foreign Minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, who said they were evidence of bigotry among Saudi leaders.

"Indeed; no resemblance between Islam of Iranians & most Muslims & bigoted extremism that Wahhabi top cleric & Saudi terror masters preach," Zarif wrote on his Twitter account.

Saudi authorities normally seek to avoid public discussion of whether Shi'ites are Muslims, but implicitly recognize them as such by welcoming them to the haj, and by accepting Iranian visits to the Saudi-based Organisation of Islamic Cooperation.

Tensions between the two countries have been rising since Riyadh cut ties with Tehran in January following the storming of its embassy in Tehran, itself a response to the Saudi execution of dissident Shi'ite cleric Nimr al-Nimr.

Custodian of Islam's most revered places in Mecca and Medina, Saudi Arabia stakes its reputation on organizing haj, one of the five pillars of Islam which every able-bodied Muslim who can afford to is obliged to undertake at least once.

Riyadh said 769 pilgrims were killed in the 2015 disaster, the highest haj death toll since a crush in 1990. Counts of fatalities by countries who repatriated bodies showed that more than 2,000 people may have died, more than 400 of them Iranians.

Iran blamed the 2015 disaster on organizers' incompetence. Pilgrims from Iran will be unable to attend haj, which officially starts on Sept. 11, this year after talks between the two countries on arrangements broke down in May.

The split between Islam's main sects dates to a dispute among Muslims over who would rule their community after the death of the Prophet Mohammad, and Shi'ites still regard his descendents as a line of imams blessed with divine guidance.

Today such disagreements over history remain emotive points of tension between the sects, but they are also divided over day -to-day issues including differing interpretations of Islamic law and the role and organization of the clergy.

In the Wahhabi teaching of Sunni Islam followed by the Saudi clergy and government, Shi'ite doctrine about imams is seen as incompatible with the concept of a monotheistic God.</s>Iranian President Hassan Rouhani called Wednesday on the Muslim world to unite and punish the Saudi government for its handling of the hajj pilgrimage and wider actions in the region.

"Regional countries and the world of Islam should take coordinated actions to resolve problems and punish the Saudi government," he told a cabinet meeting, according to the IRNA state news agency.

"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 added.

"Unfortunately, this government by committing crimes in the region and supporting terrorism in fact shed the blood of Muslims in Iraq, Syria and Yemen."

Relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia were already at rock bottom before the regional rivals started trading barbs this week ahead of the start of the annual hajj pilgrimage on Saturday.

Iranians have been blocked from joining the hajj for the first time in almost 30 years after talks on security and logistics fell apart in May.

Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Monday accused Saudi Arabia of "murder" over the deaths of nearly 2,300 pilgrims, including hundreds of Iranians, in a stampede during last year's pilgrimage.

Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif hit out at the "bigoted extremism" of the Saudi authorities, responding to claims by Saudi Arabia's most senior cleric, Grand Mufti Abdulaziz al-Sheikh, that Iranians were "not Muslims".</s>Tehran-Riyadh war of words hots up as Iranians miss hajj

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif accused Saudi authorities of "bigoted extremism" late Tuesday in an increasingly bitter war of words over Iran's exclusion from this year's hajj pilgrimage.

Javad Zarif was responding to a claim by Saudi Arabia's most senior cleric, Grand Mufti Abdulaziz al-Sheikh, that Iranians were "not Muslims".

"Indeed, no resemblance between Islam of Iranians and most Muslims, and bigoted extremism that Wahhabi top cleric and Saudi terror masters preach," Zarif tweeted.

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was due to meet later on Wednesday with the families of some of the more than 400 Iranian victims of a stampede that killed nearly 2,300 pilgrims at last year's hajj.

He published a scathing open letter on Monday, accusing the Saudis of failing to protect pilgrims.

"The hesitation and failure to rescue the half-dead and injured people... is also obvious and incontrovertible. They murdered them," he wrote.

For the first time in almost three decades, Iranians have been blocked from the annual pilgrimage to Islam's holiest places in Saudi Arabia after the regional rivals failed to agree on safety and logistical issues.

That has sparked acrimonious exchanges ahead of the start of the hajj on Saturday.

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)", and called on the Muslim world to end its management of the hajj.

The grand mufti responded on Tuesday, telling the Makkah daily: "We must understand these are not Muslims, they are children of Magi and their hostility towards Muslims is an old one."

"Magi" was a reference to the Zoroastrian religion that was prevalent in Iran before Islam, and is sometimes used as an insult against Iranians.

Iran and Saudi Arabia follow different branches of Islam -- Shiite and Sunni -- and vie for regional dominance, backing rival sides in conflicts from Syria to Yemen.</s>The war of words between regional religious and political rivals Iran and Saudi Arabia has heated up as more than two million Muslims assembled in the Grand Mosque in Mecca to perform the initial rituals of the annual Hajj pilgrimage.

Iran’s president Hassan Rouhani, a moderate mid-level Shia cleric, called on Muslims to unite and punish the Sunni Saudi government for its mismanagement of last year’s Hajj when at least 2,411 pilgrims (according to the Associated Press), among them 464 Iranians, were killed in a stampede – and for Saudi involvement in wars in Syria and Yemen.

Rouhani was replying to Saudi Arabia’s chief cleric, Grand Mufti Abdelaziz al-Sheikh, who declared that Shias are “not Muslims [but] children of the Magi [Zeroastrians] and their hostility towards Muslims is an old one”.

This policy line towards Shias, considered along with Sunnis an orthodox Islamic sect, was adopted by the 18th-century cleric Mohamed Ibn Abdul Wahhab, who called for a return to Islam’s founding principles and partnered with Muhammad Ibn Saud in the conquest of Arabia.

Al-Sheikh’s pronouncement came in response to Iran’s Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who said the Saudis had “murdered” last year’s victims and urged the Muslim world to challenge Saudi stewardship of not only the Hajj but also of Mecca and Medina, the cities where Islam was born. If his call were accepted, it would nullify the right of the Saudi monarch to assume the title of “Guardian of the Two Holy Sites”.

Khamenei wants a commission representing all Muslim sects to take over management of the Hajj and the holy cities, although the Saudis conquered Mecca and Medina nearly a century ago and have spent billions of dollars on pilgrimage infrastructure, earning billions in return from the Hajj.

When the multitude gathers today and tomorrow in the tent city at Mina ahead of the pilgrimage, some 61,000 Iranians will be absent. For the first time in nearly 30 years, Iranians are not participating, after Tehran and Riyadh rowed over terms surrounding the pilgrimage.

The major obstacle was Riyadh’s insistence that Iranians should apply for Hajj visas from the Swiss embassy in Tehran, as the Saudi embassy in Tehran has been closed since an arson attack on it last January by an Iranian mob after the Saudis executed Nimr al-Nimr, a leading Saudi Shia cleric accused of “terrorism”.

The last time Iranians stayed away from the hajj was after the 1987 event, when 400 pilgrims and police died in clashes sparked by Iranian anti-western political protests.

On Sunday, the throng will move to the Plain of Arafat where the faithful will stand in silence at noon to commemorate the “Standing” of the congregation listening to the Prophet Muhammad’s sermon. That night, ahead of the Feast of Sacrifice, the pilgrims will camp at Muzdalifa, located between Arafat and Mina, where each will gather stones to fling over the next three days at three pillars, in a symbolic rejection of temptation.

The traditional small stone pillars surrounded by low white-washed walls have been replaced by a multilevel, circular pedestrian bridge from which pilgrims carry out the stoning of massive pillars. The concrete bridges and their approaches have been the sites of seven deadly crushes between 1994 and 2015, with a total of some 4,000 fatalities.

The causes of the 2015 stampede and the number of victims are disputed, prompting many countries to criticise Riyadh for failing to impose crowd control.

The tussle over the hajj is a bitter religious aspect of Iranian-Saudi rivalry, intensifying the power struggle between Iran and Saudi Arabia which began in earnest with the 1979 creation of the Iranian Islamic Republic.

Since then Iran has stirred dissent among Shias in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and elsewhere but failed to extend its influence to a major Arab country until 2003, when the US installed a pro-Iranian Shia regime in Baghdad.

Today Iran backs the Syrian government and Shia Houthi rebels in Yemen while Saudi Arabia seeks the overthrow of the Syrian regime and is waging war on the Houthis.</s>Saudi Arabia's Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdulaziz Al al-Sheikh, the highest religious authority in the country, said in remarks published on Wednesday that the leaders of regional rival Iran were not Muslims and saw Sunni Muslims as their enemy.

Referring to the Iranian leadership, the English-language Arab News website quoted him as saying: "We have to understand that they are not Muslims ... Their enmity toward Muslims is old and their main enemies are the followers of Sunnah (Sunnis).”

He said Iranian leaders were "followers of magus", a term that refers to Zoroastrianism, the dominant belief in Persia until the Muslim Arab invasion of today's Iran thirteen centuries ago.</s>Sheikh Abdulaziz Al al-Sheikh, Saudi Arabia’s Grand Mufti, the highest religious authority in the country, said that the leaders of regional rival Iran were not Muslims and saw Sunni Muslims as their enemy.

He said this on Wednesday in Riyadh in reaction to comments by Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, criticizing Saudi management of the hajj and suggesting Muslim countries think about ending Saudi control of the annual pilgrimage.

Al al-Sheikh said he was not surprised by the comments from Khamenei.

“We have to understand that they are not Muslims, their enmity toward Muslims is old and their main enemies are the followers of Sunnah.”

He said Iranian leaders were “followers of magus”, a term that refers to Zoroastrianism, the dominant belief in Persia until the Muslim Arab invasion of today’s Iran thirteen centuries ago.</s>Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency on Wednesday quoted Rouhani lambasting Saudi Arabia’s response to the 2015 stampede in Mina.

Iran’s president on Wednesday called on the Muslim world to “punish” Saudi Arabia following last year’s hajj crush and stampede that killed over 2,400 people sharp criticism as multitudes poured into the kingdom for this year’s pilgrimage.

Iranian pilgrims are not taking part in this year’s hajj, a ritual required of all able-bodied Muslims at least once in their life.

Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency on Wednesday quoted Rouhani lambasting Saudi Arabia’s response to the 2015 stampede in Mina by saying pilgrims lost their lives because Saudi authorities acted just as “bystanders rather than rescuing” those caught in the disaster.

“The government of Saudi Arabia must be held accountable for this incident,” Rouhani told a weekly Cabinet meeting. “Unfortunately, this government has even refrained from a verbal apology to Muslims and Muslim countries.”

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, meanwhile met with families of victims and survivors of the Mina stampede and reiterated his demand that Saudi Arabia’s ruling Al Saud family properly investigate the disaster, IRNA reported.

“If they are claiming that they are not guilty in the incident, they should let an Islamic-international fact-finding delegation review and probe the case closely,” Khamenei said, adding that Saudi Arabia “should not shut people’s mouth with money.”

On social media, Khamenei’s accounts used the hashtag #alSaudHijacksHajj to criticise the kingdom, while reiterating his demand that someone other than the Saudis be in charge of administering the hajj.

The September 24, 2015, stampede and crush of pilgrims killed at least 2,426 people, according to an Associated Press count based on state media reports and officials’ comments from 36 of the over 180 countries that sent citizens to the hajj.

The official Saudi toll of 769 people killed and 934 injured has not changed since Sept. 26. The kingdom has never addressed the discrepancy, nor has it released any results of an investigation they promised to conduct over the disaster.

Iran had the highest death toll of any country, with 464 Iranian pilgrims killed.

In January, tensions between longtime rivals Iran and Saudi Arabia soared after the kingdom executed a prominent Saudi Shiite cleric. Angry demonstrators later attacked two Saudi diplomatic posts in Iran and Saudi Arabia cut diplomatic ties to the Islamic Republic. The two countries also support opposing sides in the civil wars in Syria and Yemen.

On Monday, Khamenei raised the stakes in the dispute over hajj by saying Saudi officials had “murdered” hajj pilgrims who were injured in the stampede. Saudi’s grand mufti countered by claiming that Iranians are “not Muslims.”

A coalition of Gulf nations on Wednesday also criticized Khamenei. The Saudi-led Gulf Cooperation Council issued a statement saying that Khamenei’s remarks and any such “false and outrageous accusations ... should not be issued from the heart or the tongue of any Muslim.”</s>Saudi Arabia’s Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdulaziz Al al-Sheikh, the highest religious authority in the country, said in remarks published on Wednesday that the leaders of regional rival Iran were not Muslims and saw Sunni Muslims as their enemy.

Al al-Sheikh was reacting to comments by Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei criticising Saudi management of the haj and suggesting Muslim countries think about ending Saudi control of the annual pilgrimage.

Responding to a question about Monday’s comments by Khamenei, Al al-Sheikh said he was not surprised by them.

“We have to understand that they are not Muslims … Their enmity toward Muslims is old and their main enemies are the followers of Sunnah (Sunnis),” the English-language Arab News website reported him as saying.

He said Iranian leaders were “followers of magus”, a term that refers to Zoroastrianism, the dominant belief in Persia until the Muslim Arab invasion of today’s Iran thirteen centuries ago.

Al-Sheikh’s remarks, made to a Mecca newspaper which carried them on Tuesday, drew a swift retort from Iran‘s Foreign Minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, who criticised Saudi Arabia’s Wahhabi school of Sunni Islam.

“Indeed; no resemblance between Islam of Iranians & most Muslims & bigoted extremism that Wahhabi top cleric & Saudi terror masters preach,” Zarif wrote on his Twitter account.
The top cleric of Saudi Arabia says Iranians "are not Muslims."