Addressing Iran’s Hajj officials on Monday, Ayatollah Khamenei said the country’s diplomatic apparatus and the Hajj and Pilgrimage Organization must follow up on the issue decisively.
His Eminence referred to the deaths of some 7000 Muslims in the crush of pilgrims in Mina, Saudi Arabia, during the Hajj rituals and said the host country is responsible for the deaths.
Ayatollah Khamenei stressed that the Muslim world should have expressed protest in one voice but, regrettably, no country except Iran did so.
The Leader further slammed the silence of so-called human rights institutions in the US and Europe, saying is among the issues which can be followed up on.
“Hypocritical and liar institutions, which claim to be supporters of human rights, together with Western governments, which sometimes kick up a fuss around the world for the death of a single person, maintained absolute silence in this saga in favor of their friend government,” Ayatollah Khamenei noted.
The Leader demanded the Mina tragedy not slip into oblivion, saying the issue should be brought up at international forums for years.
The crush happened after two large masses of pilgrims converged at a crossroads in Mina during one of Hajj rituals on September 24. Saudi Arabia claims nearly 770 people were killed in the incident, but officials at Iran’s Hajj and Pilgrimage Organization say about 4,700 people, including 464 Iranians, lost their lives in the tragedy. So far, the death tolls of foreign nationals announced by their respective states add up to at least 2,110.
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