In a live interview with state TV on Saturday, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif who is currently in New York said that a special summit of foreign ministers of Islamic countries will be held on the sidelines of the 70th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) to follow up on the legal and political aspects of the tragic incident in Mina on Thursday, which killed upwards of 2,000 pilgrims, including at least 136 Iranians.
He added that Iran’s top priority at the moment is, however, to make certain of the overall wellbeing and the preserved dignity and self-respect of the Iranian pilgrims still in Mecca as well as to follow up on the conditions of the injured Iranians as Iran has not gotten access to some hospitals currently treating them.
“We have over 300 medics sent on the Hajj pilgrims all of whom are perfectly capable of treating the injured Iranians provided that they are given access to them,” said Zarif, urging Saudi officials to accelerate the process of assisting the injured pilgrims.
With some 344 Iranian pilgrims still missing, Saeed Ohadi, the head of Iran’s Hajj and Pilgrimage Organization, said on Saturday that Iran has set up 10 teams to identify the injured pilgrims hospitalized in the Saudi port city of Jeddah and the city of Ta’if.
He said the identification of the injured Iranian pilgrims is difficult due to tight security in Saudi Arabia.
To a question on whether Zarif is taking any measures in New York regarding the formation of a special task force to address the incident in Mina and the Saudis’ lack of cooperation to issue the required visas, the Iranian diplomat said he has been in contact with Saudi authorities at the embassy so that he could pursue the issue on a political level there in New York. He also added that the Saudi charge d'affaires has been summoned by Iran’s Foreign Ministry and the Iranian deputy FM Hossein Amir-Abdollahian has discussed this issue with the Saudi official.
Zarif further added that he had sent a message to heads of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) who had all lost a number of their citizens in the tragic event, calling for collective efforts in investigating the issue.
Zarif again stressed that the country’s priority at the moment is a humane one which is to make sure of the wellbeing of the Iranian pilgrims still in Mecca, at the same time as legal and political dimensions of the issue were being investigated.
According to Zarif, President Rouhani’s UN address at the Sustainable Development Summit in New York will take place at 4:45 PM Tehran time on Saturday and his speech at the opening session of United Nations General Assembly will take place approximately at 7:00 PM Tehran time on Sunday. Zarif added that President Rouhani will definitely address the Mina incident in his speech as well as during his meetings with heads of states participating in the UN event.
MS
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