Iran Press/ Iran news: Jafar Hemmati on Thursday said that the border point will remain close until further notice because of security issues and the negotiations for reopening it are in progress.
The head of Hajj and Pilgrimage Organization of West Azerbaijan Province Mohammad-Reza Nadiri said that Mehran Barber Point located in Western Azerbaijan Province will be used as a substitute for Khosravi border point until it reopens, Iran Press reported.
Chazzabeh, Shalamcheh, Mehran and Khosravi border crossings are open to Arbaneen pilgrims this year.
Khosravi is the closest border point to Najaf and Karbala that are the destinations of the pilgrims.
Khosravi border, in the western Iranian province of Kermanshah, was reopened in late September to ease the commute of pilgrims who want to visit the Holy city of Karbala for Arbaeen procession.
Arbaeen, an Arabic word meaning the 40th, is a mourning ceremony held 40 days after Imam Hussein, Prophet Muhammad's grandson, and his 72 followers, including 18 of family members and close relatives, were brutally martyred in Karbala on Ashura, the 10th day of the lunar month, by the army of the second Umayyad caliph, Yazid, in AD 680.
The mourning ceremony began and was soon established when Jabir ibn Abdollah Ansari, a close follower of Prophet Mohammad (PBUH), then 77, visited Imam Hussein's grave as the Imam's first pilgrim, 40 days after Ashura.
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