Hassan Qashqavi who was speaking on the sidelines of the 6th session of police commanders and foreign ambassadors and charge d’affaires on Wednesday, told reporters that Iranian diplomatic system had paid visits to Saudi Arabia to rapidly transfer the corpses, preventing burying of the corpses without consent of their families, and to identify missing pilgrims from among the corpses in the morgues; “we hope to see Saudis’ good cooperation in facilitating the return of the pilgrims to country till the end of the Hajj pilgrimage rites,” he added.
“The good offices of Hajj and Pilgrimage Organization, Health and Foreign Ministries, and those of Iran’s consul-general and ambassador are laudable; according to the latest figures, 73 Iranian pilgrims are to be recovered from among the corpses; any verdict about their definite fate is unlikely, since there has been no trace of their bodies or any indication which help identify them, and the time will show what has been their ultimate fate in this mishap,” Qashqavi emphasized.
“Among the possible scenarios/speculations is the assumption that some of pilgrims in hospital have been arrested by Saudi police; however, no single scenario/speculation would hold true; the only authority is Iran’s consulate-general in Saudi Arabia which has the last word about the different possibilities,” he told reporters. “Currently, 10 diplomatic figures work on the issue of Mina and returning back of the corpses or injured pilgrims,” Qashqavi asserted.
Deputy-foreign minister also said that the reality on Mina tragedy was that “with the sheer scope of the disaster in early hours and overhasty transfer of corpses to morgues and hospitals which lacked in some cases the necessary standards, there had been no organized system for supervising the issue such as the overseeing committee, 2 Iranian pilgrims were found in a morgue where the Pakistanis were supposed to be found,” he added. “No other country is more organized and disciplined in transfer of pilgrims than Iran; I offer condolences to the families of the deceased victims of Mina incident; we know that in what bereaved circumstances these families are; they are now edging with despair, but the only remedy is patience about what has beset these families,” Qashqavi said.