۱۰ فروردین ۱۴۰۳ |۱۹ رمضان ۱۴۴۵ | Mar 29, 2024
News ID: 352507
7 July 2018 - 20:20
Iranian Official stresses planning for Hajj

An Iranian official urged the country’s Hajj pilgrims to have precise planning to make the most of their pilgrimage.

Hawzah News Agency (Qom, Iran) - Speaking at a gathering in Qom of those set to make the spiritual pilgrimage this year, Hojat-ol-Islam Seyed Ali Qazi-Askar, the representative of Leader of the Islamic Revolution in Hajj and pilgrimage affairs, said Hajj is a great blessing from God and those who receive this blessing should benefit from every second of the trip.

Hajj is a unique journey whose blessings are not achievable in other journeys,” he said.

The cleric added that pilgrims ought to plan for the trip in advance in order to achieve all of its lofty objectives.

Elsewhere, Hojat-ol-Islam Qazi-Askar referred to the preparations for this year’s Hajj, which will be held in Saudi Arabia next month, and said there have been no major problems in making those preparations despite a lack of diplomatic ties between Tehran and Riyadh.

Hojat-ol-Islam Qazi-Askar further referred to the participation of Iranian pilgrims in Hajj last year, after a year of suspension, and said the 2017 Hajj was desirably held.

Like last year, more than 85,000 Iranian pilgrims will make the pilgrimage this year.

In May, Head of Iran’s Hajj and Pilgrimage Organization Hamid Mohammadi said dispatching Iranian Hajj pilgrims to Saudi Arabia will begin on July 16.

He said they will be sent to the kingdom in 576 batches, each consisting 85 to 160 individuals.

He added that the Iranian pilgrims will stay in Saudi Arabia between 28 and 45 days, depending on the conditions at Madinah and Jeddah airports.

In 2017, some 85,000 pilgrims from Iran travelled to the holy sites in Saudi Arabia for Hajj.

A year earlier, more than 1.8 million pilgrims attended Hajj, but Iranians stayed at home after tensions between Riyadh and Tehran boiled over following a deadly crush of people during the 2015 pilgrimage.

On September 24, 2015, thousands of people lost their lives in the deadly crush after Saudi authorities blocked a road in Mina during a ritual, forcing large crowds of pilgrims to collide.

The crush was the deadliest incident in the history of the pilgrimage. According to an Associated Press count based on official statements from the 36 countries that lost citizens in the disaster, more than 2,400 pilgrims were killed in the incident.

Saudi Arabia claims nearly 770 people were killed, but officials at Iran’s Hajj and Pilgrimage Organization say about 4,700 people, including over 460 Iranian pilgrims, lost their lives. 

 

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