Iran-Saudi Arabia Relations

Boroujerdi dismissed as unacceptable claims that Roknabadi has died in Mina, and said his abduction theory remains a very strong possibility.

Saudi Arabia is unfortunately the only country that is still looking at regional developments through a win-lose lens and is insisting on the removal of others, Afkham said.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Marziyeh Afkham on Saturday strongly condemned the terrorist attack in east Saudi Arabia which claimed lives of many innocent civilians gathering together to mourn the martyrdom anniversary of Imam Hussein (AS), the third Shia Imam.

The head of Hajj and Pilgrimage Organization has said that the Saudi government will have to remain committed to its pledges to fully cooperate with Iran.

Araghchi said there is still no news about the fate of Iran's former ambassador to Lebanon who went missing in the fatal stampede.

Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani has said that Tehran and Riyadh can improve their ties and that disintegration of certain Middle Eastern countries is not a regional demand.

Tehran has called on the UN and influential countries in the Yemeni crisis to ramp up efforts to bring an immediate end to the Saudi-led air strikes on Yemen.

The secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council called on the international community to seek a political solution to the Yemen crisis.

A third cargo plane carrying 98 bodies of Iranian pilgrims touched down in Tehran early Tuesday.

On the possibility of Roknabadi’s abduction, Deputy Foreign Minister Hassan Ghashghavi said that such a claim can neither be confirmed nor denied.

Alavi reiterated that Iran should follow up the Mina case in collaboration with other nations and Islamic countries.

The vice-president for legal affairs has said that Iran is not empty-handed to sue the Saudi government for failure to honor the international responsibility envisaged by the International Law Commission in 2001.

Two painful incidents took place in Mecca this year which left a lot of pilgrims from several Islamic countries dead and hurt sentiments of Muslims, Rafsanjani said.

Iran’s Ali Larijani has called for the adoption of necessary measures to prevent reoccurrence of tragic incidents like the Mina crush.

Muslim countries must investigate the incident and a fact-finding mission must be set up, the leader of Friday prayers said.

Foreign Minister Zarif has exchanged views with the Algerian and Syrian top diplomats on bilateral ties as well as the latest developments in the Middle East.

Determining the fate of the missing people and the transportation of “every single body” is a priority for Iran, Deputy Foreign Minister Amir-Abdollahian said.

Ayatollah Khamenei also lashed out at Riyadh for failing to ensure the safety of Hajj pilgrims.

Saudi Arabia needs to take steps toward locating the missing people and treating the injured pilgrims, an Iranian Foreign Ministry official told the Saudi diplomat.

The secretary of the Expediency Council has said that the past behavior of the Saudis toward Iran suggests that they are seeking to undermine Iran’s regional power.

Afkham has dismissed as unconstructive Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Ahmed Al-Jubeir's allegations that Iran is exploiting the Mina tragedy for political gains.

The Mina crush and its circumstances are suspicious because some of senior Iranian officials have been killed or gone missing in the incident, Ali Akbar Velayati said.

Asked about Riyadh’s possible decision to bury the dead in the Arab country, Nobakht said that the Saudis cannot do that without the official procedures or permission from the victims’ families.

A former Iranian ambassador to Oman has said that the Islamic Republic should act vigilantly in dealing with the deadly stampede in Saudi Arabia.

Saudi officials are expected to consider serious cooperation and pay attention to their responsibility until the fate of all missing Iranian pilgrims is determined, said Amir Abdollahian.