Iran's Hajj and Pilgrimage Organization says Iranians will be attending this year’s Hajj after Saudi Arabia agreed to make the necessary arrangements for the safety and well-being of Iranian pilgrims to participate in the rituals.
Iran decided to stop sending pilgrims to Hajj over safety concerns after two deadly incidents claimed the lives of more than 470 Iranian pilgrims during the 2015 Hajj rituals.
Days after the deadly human crush, which occurred in September 2015, Saudi Arabia published a death toll of 770 but refused to update it despite gradually surging fatality figures from individual countries whose nationals had been among the victims of the crush. Iran said about 4,700 people, including over 465 of its nationals, lost their lives in the incident.
Saudi emergency personnel stand near bodies of Hajj pilgrims at the site of a stampede in Mina, near Mecca, in September 2015.
Earlier that month, a massive construction crane had collapsed into Mecca’s Grand Mosque, killing more than 100 pilgrims, including 11 Iranians, and injuring over 200 others, among them 32 Iranian nationals.
