NEW YORK — Iranian President Hassan Rouhani accused Saudi Arabia of “ineptitude” in its handling of religious pilgrims and suggested that the diversion of Saudi military manpower to Yemen might be one reason for the Saudi failure to prevent a stampede near Mecca on Sept. 24 in which hundreds of pilgrims — including many Iranians — died.

Rouhani, in his first public comments since arriving in New York for the annual UN General Assembly, was judiciously diplomatic and vague about many other topics, including the continued detention of three Iranian-Americans, the future trajectory of US-Iran relations and a road map to a political solution in Syria. But when answering questions from senior representatives of the US media Sept. 25, he acknowledged the poor state of Iranian-Saudi relations even before the tragedy at Mina.

“Of course, relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran have worsened because of Yemen,” Rouhani said. While asserting that Iran would not “hesitate” if it saw an opening for diplomacy with the Saudis, he noted, “we are completely opposed” to Saudi military intervention in Yemen.

Rouhani suggested that the preoccupation of the Saudi military with Yemen might have left the kingdom short of experienced manpower to manage the annual pilgrimage known as the hajj. He said the death toll for Iranian pilgrims was at least 140 and might go higher once all the missing are accounted for. The total dead is more than 700, and the incident follows the collapse just weeks ago of a construction crane at the Great Mosque of Mecca, killing more than 100 people.