Graphic: Death toll of foreigners in Saudi Arabia’s Haj stampede
JEDDAH // Riyadh and Tehran have agreed to repatriate Iranian pilgrims killed in last week’s Haj stampede, Saudi Arabian state media said on Thursday.
It came as Tehran nearly doubled its death toll to 464, giving up hope of finding missing pilgrims alive. Iranians now account for more than half of the 769 killed in last week’s tragedy near Mecca – the highest confirmed death toll among any foreign nationality, followed by Egypt with 75.
Riyadh and Tehran “have agreed on the repatriation of the bodies of identified dead Iranians as soon as possible”, Saudi Arabia’s Spa state news agency reported early on Thursday following talks between the two sides in Jeddah.
The two countries will also “maintain contacts to identify the rest and look after the wounded,” Spa added under the agreement struck between Saudi Arabian health minister Khaled Al Falih and his Iranian counterpart Hassan Hashemi.
It said Mr Falih “stressed the kingdom’s government’s wish to cooperate with the Islamic Republic of Iran”.
Iran had accused Saudi Arabia of hindering its efforts to bring home the identified bodies of 239 Iranians who died in the stampede.
The bodies of another 225 people – confirmed dead on Thursday – are yet to be found. Iran’s official Isna news agency said four Iranian diplomats were thought to be among this number, including the country’s former ambassador to Lebanon, 49-year-old Ghazanfar Roknabadi.
However, “the fate of 16 other Iranian pilgrims is still unclear according to latest figures,” interior minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli was quoted as saying on Thursday by Isna.
Iran’s Irna news agency quoted Mr Hashemi as saying that he and Mr Falih had agreed to “speed up the repatriation process”.
“We were assured that no Iranian would be buried [in Saudi Arabia] without the permission of the government and their relatives,” he said.
Tehran claimed last week that Saudi Arabian authorities have failed to issue visas for Iranian officials who sought to travel to the kingdom to facilitate the repatriation of the dead and the injured.
The two regional rivals were already at odds over Iran’s support for Houthi rebels in Yemen, which lies on the other side of Saudi Arabia’s southern border.
“Saudi officials are failing to do their duties,” Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in a speech to graduating navy officers, following delays in the return of the haj dead, accusing some of the officials of “slyness”.
“They should know that the slightest disrespect towards tens of thousands of Iranian pilgrims in Mecca and Medina and not fulfilling their obligation to transfer holy bodies will have Iran’s tough and fierce reaction.”
* Agence France-Presse
