Iran Pursuing Case of 2015 Crane Collapse Accident in Mecca
Hossein Kamalian, head of the Iranian Foreign Ministry’s delegation to Hajj said the ministry is also pursuing the case of those martyred in the Mina tragedy in the same year.
People will be informed as soon as these ongoing measures yield results, he added.
A crane collapse at the Grand Mosque in Mecca in 2015, which left at least 107 pilgrims, including several Iranians, dead and more than 230 others injured.
It forced the Saudi Binladen Group to stop expansion projects in the mosque compound for two years.
That incident and a deadly human crush in Mina two weeks later brought diplomatic relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia to a head, before Riyadh cut ties with Tehran following strong protests against the kingdom’s execution of a prominent Shia cleric.
In the second incident, according to media tally, more than two thousand pilgrims lost their lives in Mina after two large masses converged at a crossroads during the symbolic stoning of Satan.
Saudi Arabia claims nearly 770 people were killed in the incident, but officials at Iran’s Hajj and Pilgrimage Organization say about 4,700 people, including more than 460 Iranian pilgrims, lost their lives.
Those incidents as well as frequent fires at the tent camps of pilgrims have raised serious questions about the competence of Saudi authorities in charge of organizing annual Hajj rituals.
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