Hassan Qadiri experiences the hajj with particular fervor. Being able to leave, during the great Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca, an Iran ravaged by weeks of devastating war, is an immense relief for him.
Because between the start of the war at the end of February and the ceasefire that came into force at the beginning of April, Mr. Qadiri and his family had to take refuge with each wave of American-Israeli bombings on their city of Isfahan, in central Iran.
“Here, we hear the call to prayer, not the explosions,” he told AFP: “I am very happy.”
Like many Iranians present this year at the hajj, Mr. Qadiri and his family are staying in a hotel near the Grand Mosque of Mecca, closely guarded by Saudi security forces, who prevent other pilgrims from approaching or to exchange with the faithful Iranians.
These measures were put in place given the delicate situation between Riyadh and Tehran.
For weeks, Saudi Arabia and its Gulf neighbors, Washington’s allies, have suffered salvos of Iranian drones and missiles, in retaliation for the Israeli-American attack launched on February 28.
But Riyadh is keen to keep politics away from the pilgrimage, in which thousands of Iranian faithful participate.
“The Saudis treat us well and everything is going very well,” assures Mr. Qadiri.
His wife, who requested anonymity, dressed in a black abaya and a turquoise bib stamped “Ispahan”, says she finds the hajj a form of respite.
“Being here makes the war more bearable,” she says.
In the streets of the holy city, the colors of Iran are visible, on the pilgrims’ bags, their clothes or the buses that transport them.
According to the official Iranian news agency, IRNA, only some 30,000 Iranian pilgrims are participating in the hajj this year, compared to the 86,000 initially expected, due to the war.
– Point of tension –
The hajj has long been a point of tension between Iran, with a Shiite majority, and Saudi Arabia, with a Sunni majority.
In the years following the Islamic Revolution in Iran, Saudi authorities accused Iranian pilgrims of provoking deadly stampedes and other violence, while regularly chanting political slogans, an act considered taboo by religious authorities in Mecca.
The last major dispute dates back to 2015, when these two countries once again passed the blame on each other after 464 Iranians were among the 2,300 faithful killed in a stampede, one of the deadliest tragedies in the history of the hajj.
No Iranian pilgrims were allowed to participate the following year. And the two heavyweights of the Middle East had severed their diplomatic relations before reestablishing them in March 2023.
Since then, relations between Tehran and Riyadh have been further strained by Iranian strikes on Saudi energy installations and civil infrastructure, coupled with Iran’s blockade of most maritime traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, vital for the countries’ energy exports. Gulf.
– “Depoliticize the hajj” –
Saudi Arabia “has been very keen to depoliticize the hajj in all its forms, whether political activities or slogans during the pilgrimage”, notes Umer Karim, specialist in Saudi foreign policy at the University of Birmingham, at United Kingdom.
In a hotel welcoming Iranian pilgrims, posters in Arabic and English remind us that “waving political or sectarian flags as well as any form of chanting slogans is prohibited during the hajj”, repeating a warning already broadcast by the Saudi Ministry of the Interior.
Members of the official Iranian delegation refused to speak to AFP.
This year, the start of the hajj coincides with the hope of a breakthrough in negotiations between Washington and Tehran to find a peace agreement.
Despite the uncertainty and the threat of a resumption of conflict, many Iranians say they are taking advantage of this moment of respite in Islam’s holiest city.
“It’s wonderful to be here for the hajj,” Ali Reza told AFP, cigarette in hand in front of his hotel.
Pardis, a forty-year-old from Tehran who lost loved ones in an airstrike, shares this feeling.
“I feel at peace and safe here,” she says.
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