Hossein Noushabadi told Mehr News on Saturday that the Hajj and Pilgrimage Organization had been closely watching developments in Mina incident dossier; however, he said that despite hectic work with Saudi officials, they have systematically been evading their responsibility in accurately and fairly addressing the issue; “no concrete action had yet been done by the kingdom’s highly evasive officials, despite the incontrovertible evidence providing testimony to the sheer incompetence of the Saudi officials in handling so large an event as hajj pilgrimage; the responses to demands by the Islamic Republic of Iran’s officials had been defiance and lethargic inaction,” he objected.
“We are highly suspicious of international legal organizations since it is not guaranteed that they accept our evidence in Saudi incompetence in Mina incident as eligible and worthy of consideration in international courts; therefore, hopes of a verdict for the Islamic Republic of Iran in any such court are paltry at best,” Noushabadi told Mehr News.
“We communicated the case with Saudi officials and if they bind by the evidence and turn to action and address the case, we will file lawsuit against Saudis in international tribunals as well; not a penny has been paid by Saudi officials so far for reimbursement of the victims of Mina incident and also in crane crash which killed 11 Iranian pilgrims,” added the official, drawing a grim image of the incident. “Neither had they engaged in serious punitive action in Jeddah airport incident of sexual harassment of two Iranian teen pilgrims, and we speculate that two perpetrators are still at large and the least punishment had not been decided for them.”
Iran-Saudi Arabia relations has took a violent turn with Syrian crisis turning to a battlefield for Iran and Saudi Arabia over hegemony in the Middle East. Saudi Arabia has been actively supporting and arming terrorist extremists they believe ‘legitimate opposition’ such as ISIL and al-Nusra Front, while they have been most notorious of the petty cruel terrorists fighting Assad.
The ties further exacerbated when execution of an outspoken critic of Saudi government and a Shi’ite prominent cleric Nimr Mohammad Baqir al-Nimr earlier in January, when in Tehran an angry crowd of protesters set Saudi embassy alight and when Saudi Arabia severed diplomatic ties with Tehran.
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