Iran accuses Saudi government of backing terrorism

Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 7

By Farhad Daneshvar – Trend:

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has accused Saudi Arabia of backing terrorism in the region.

"Saudi government committing crimes in the region and backing terrorism is actually shedding the blood of Muslims in Iraq, Syria and Yemen and savagely bombards the Yemeni women and children on a daily basis," president’s official website quoted him as saying.

Rouhani called on regional and Muslim countries to take coordinated measures aimed at resolving the existing problems and “punishing” the Saudi government.

“The existing problems regarding Saudi Arabia are beyond issues such as Haj,” he added.

He further touched upon the mentioned stampede which took hundreds of lives last year in Saudi Arabia.

"The Saudi government should be held accountable for the incident but it has refused to extend even verbal apology to the Muslims and the Islamic countries," he added.

About 500 Iranian Hajj pilgrims were killed in Mina stampede last September near the holy city of Mecca.

Although Riyadh says that 770 individuals were killed in the incident, Iran, which had the greatest number of deaths among foreign nationals, has put the death toll at about 4,700.

The Mina tragedy came after, a massive construction crane collapsed onto the Grand Mosque in Mecca, killing more than 100 people, including a number of Iranians.

Ayatollah Khamenei earlier denounced Saudi Arabia’s management of the Hajj pilgrimage saying Saudi rulers were to blame for the deaths of hundreds of pilgrims in both incidents during last year’s rituals.