Iran's supreme leader says 'murderous' Saudi authorities behind hajj deaths

It has been nearly one year since a deadly stampede during the annual hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia killed an estimated 2,426 people, and Iran's supreme leader marked the anniversary by writing a takedown of the "heartless and murderous" Saudi government and their management of Mecca's Great Mosque and Medina's Prophet's Mosque.

Hajj is the mandatory pilgrimage that Muslims who are able undertake to Saudi Arabia. The Saudis say 769 people died in last September's pilgrimage, though the real number is believed to exceed 2,000. In a statement published online, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei claimed that the Saudis did not provide adequate medical treatment for victims and that survivors were locked in containers. "Instead of apology and remorse and judicial prosecution of those who were directly at fault in that horrifying event, Saudi rulers — with utmost shamelessness and insolence — refused to allow the formation of an international Islamic fact-finding committee," he said. He also called on the Islamic world to "fundamentally reconsider" how Saudi Arabia handles "the issue of hajj" and "the management of the Two Holy Places," BBC News reports.

Khamenei went on to say that those who have "reduced hajj to a religious tourist trap" are "themselves small and puny satans who tremble for fear of jeopardizing the interests of the Great Satan, the U.S." In May, Iran's hajj organization said it would not let pilgrims from the country go on the journey because of "ongoing sabotage by the Saudi government." In a statement, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef said Khamenei's claims were not credible, and accused Iran of trying to politicize hajj and violating "the teaching of Islam, through shouting slogans and disturbing the security of pilgrims."

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