Iran sends team to Saudi Arabia for talks on this year’s Hajj pilgrimage

Iran said Wednesday it has sent a team for talks in Saudi Arabia on the next annual pilgrimage after missing the Hajj in 2016 at a time of rising tensions between the two countries.

“A delegation has been sent from the Islamic Republic of Iran to Saudi Arabia to follow up on the Hajj,” Culture Minister Reza Salehi Amiri told state television. “Iran’s policy is to send pilgrims to the Hajj (this year), of course, if Saudi Arabia accepts our conditions,” he said.

Also read: Iranian delegation to visit Riyadh to discuss hajj pilgrimage rift

There was no official Iranian delegation at last year’s pilgrimage to Islam’s holiest sites in Saudi Arabia after Riyadh severed ties with Tehran following the torching of its missions in Tehran and Mashhad by protesters.

It was the first time in three decades that Iranian pilgrims had been absent and followed years of worsening relations between the two Gulf neighbors and regional rivals over the conflicts in Syria and Yemen. Negotiations for Iranian pilgrims to join last year’s pilgrimage broke down over where their visas should be issued and over security.