Iran suspends Saudi pilgrimages over youth assault allegations
After assault accusations of Iranian pilgrims in Saudi Arabia, Iran has suspended umrah pilgrimages.
Iran has suspended flights for pilgrims to Saudi Arabia over accusations that two Iranian youths were assaulted at the airport in Jeddah by Saudi security officers. The alleged incident has exasperated tensions between the two regional rivals that are at odds over a number of regional wars.
Iranian Minister of Culture Ali Jannati said on April 13 that the decision was made to suspend the flights for umrah pilgrimage over the incident in which “the nation’s public honor has been tainted.” Umrah pilgrimages are not mandatory in Islam and can be made at any time.
Jannati said that the Saudi authorities have arrested the two accused, and “they even said that the offenders will be executed.” Saudi media have not covered the case, and the Saudi Embassy in Washington told Al-Monitor on April 10 that all they have heard of the accusations was from the Iranian press.
On April 6, after days of rumors in the Iranian media, Deputy Foreign Minister Hassan Ghashghavi told reporters that in the second week of the Nowruz holidays (March 28-April 2), while “returning from umrah pilgrimage, authorities took two teenagers from their caravan and conducted a body search.” What allegedly happened afterward was described by Ghashghavi as being “similar to rape.”
