(WASHINGTON, DC) – Saudi Foreign Minister Adel bin Ahmed Al-Jubeir firmly rejected Iran’s criticism of Saudi Arabia’s handling of the Hajj. The foreign minister, who is in New York for the U.N. General Assembly, made his remarks on Saturday alongside U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry.
Minister Al-Jubeir stated, “The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques has directed to launch a thorough investigation that will be transparent. I believe that the Iranians should know better than to try to make – play politics with a tragic event that has befallen people who were performing the most sacred religious duty, which is the pilgrimage. We, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, have a long history of expending tremendous resources to care for the pilgrimage and to ensure that the pilgrims can come and have an extremely successful pilgrimage.”
He continued, “We will reveal the facts when they emerge, and we will not hold anything back. If mistakes were made, those who made them will be held accountable, and we will make sure that we will learn from this in order to ensure that it doesn’t happen again. But I want to repeat again, this is not a situation with which to play politics. I would hope that the Iranian leaders would be more sensible and more thoughtful with regards to those who perished in this tragedy and wait until we see the results of the investigation.”
