Iran to Take Legal Action against KSA, Rouhani to Join Repatriation Ceremony

Local Editor

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani announced that he will fly home early from New York to attend a repatriation ceremony in Tehran on Tuesday for Iranian pilgrims killed in the stampede at the hajj, his office said.

Rouhani is to head home straight after his address to the UN General Assembly later on Monday, the Iranian mission at the United Nations said.

A total of 169 Iranians are now known to have died in Thursday's stampede in Mina, outside Mecca, and the bodies of 130 of them will be flown home on Tuesday, state media reported.

Iran's hajj organizing committee said that 298 Iranian pilgrims remained unaccounted for on Monday, while 46 were receiving treatment in either Iran or Saudi Arabia.

A total of 769 pilgrims were killed in the worst tragedy to hit the hajj in a quarter-century.

Meanwhile, Iran has vowed to take necessary political and legal follow-up measures over the recent deadly stampede during the Hajj pilgrimage rituals in Mina, outside the holy city of Mecca.

Iran will adopt "necessary measures" to prevent the reoccurrence of incidents such as the Mina tragedy, Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said in a live televised interview with the IRIB from New York on Sunday.

Zarif said that Iranian consular officials in Saudi Arabia were denied access to those injured in the Mina incident in contravention of international regulations.

The Iranian foreign minister, who is in New York to attend the 70th session of the UN General Assembly, added that there has been "no good cooperation" on the part of Saudi officials with Iran in identifying the injured pilgrims and those who are still unaccounted for following the Mina crush.

Following Saudi officials' refusal to cooperate with Iran, Zarif said that he had asked the Kuwaiti Emir, Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmed Al Jaber Al Sabah, to mediate on the issue.

Zarif also once again expressed his condolences to Muslim nations across the world over the sad event.

In a meeting with Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari in New York on Sunday, Zarif briefed his counterpart on the latest outcomes regarding the fate of Iranian pilgrims killed and wounded in the Mina incident.

The Iraqi minister expressed his condolences over the tragedy and stressed the importance of taking more serious measures to prevent such incidents in the future.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team