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Saudi Arabia launches Persian-language hajj TV program for Iranians

The Muslim festival to mark Eid al-Adha has done little to reduce tensions between regional rivals Iran and Saudi Arabia.

Arash Karami
Arash Karami
Sep 13, 2016
Shiite Muslim pilgrims, mostly from Iran, walk near the shrine of Imam Abbas on Arafah day, referring to a prayer performed by Shiites in Saudi Arabia's Arafat plain on the second day of hajj, on September 11, 2016 in the holy Iraqi city of Karbala, 80 kilometres south of the capital Baghdad. Barred from Mecca amid an escalating spat between Tehran and Saudi Arabia, masses of Iranian Shiite faithful have converged on the holy Iraqi city of Karbala for an alternative pilgrimage. The row that has prevented I
Shiite Muslim pilgrims, mostly from Iran, near the shrine of Imam Abbas on Arafah day, the second day of hajj, in the Iraqi city of Karbala, Sept. 11, 2016. Barred from Mecca amid an escalating spat between Tehran and Saudi Arabia, masses of Iranian Shiite faithful have converged on the holy city of Karbala for an alternative pilgrimage. — HAIDAR HAMDANI/AFP/Getty Images

The Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha, which marks the end of the hajj pilgrimage, has become another opportunity for regional rivals Iran and Saudi Arabia to continue their propaganda wars against one another.

Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami, a conservative cleric and interim Friday prayer leader, used Eid al-Adha to criticize Saudi Arabia over the Mina stampede during the 2015 hajj that killed over 2,000 people, including 472 Iranians. "When I was heading to prayers last year during Eid al-Adha, I was told about the tragedy at Mina,” Khatami recounted.

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