The reaction of the Iranian regime to the Hajj tragedy, in which more than 700 people were killed, is absolutely bizarre, Gulf News reported. Just a few hours after the incident, Iranian officials began blaming Saudi Arabia for the death of the pilgrims. Without bothering to wait for the investigation, Tehran launched a hate campaign against the kingdom’s way of handling the annual Haj, something the Saudis have been doing for the past 80 years. The sheer number of pilgrims who descend on Mecca every year make it an impossible job to organize for any authority. But the Saudis have been doing it smoothly year after year without any help from others. The quality of services offered to the pilgrims is well known. Hundreds of billions of dollars have been spent on improving the infrastructure in and around Mecca to absorb the rising number of visitors. The number this year was almost two and a half million people.
It seems the Iranians thought they would gain some political points from the tragedy. That is just absurd. Sure, there are Iranians among the dead, but there are hundreds of nationals from other countries whose governments didn’t exploit the tragedy for political reasons like Iran has. The Iranian anti-Saudi propaganda over the past few days is just sick. They could not even wait until the investigation was over. The statement by the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation supporting the Saudi government efforts to handle the incident is actually the best answer to the ridiculous statements by Tehran officials.