TEHRAN: Iranian Muslims travelled on Monday to Saudi Arabia for Umrah, a year-round pilgrimage they had been barred from for almost a decade over a rift between Tehran and Riyadh, Iranian state media said.

“The first group of Umrah pilgrims departed Iran for Saudi Arabia through the Imam Khomeini airport in Tehran,” Iran’s official news agency IRNA reported.

They are the first Iranians to make the pilgrimage since Tehran and Riyadh agreed in a China-brokered deal last year to restore ties and reopen their respective embassies after more than nine years.

Iranians have already been allowed back at the Haj pilgrimage last year, but Umrah had remained off-limits for them until now.

Saudi Arabia and Iran severed ties in 2016 after Saudi diplomatic missions in Iran were attacked during protests over Riyadh’s execution of a top Shia religious scholar of Saudi Arabia, Ayatollah Sheikh Nimr Baqir al-Nimr. Ayatollah Nimr’s execution was widely condemned by governments and human rights organisations. He was popular among the youth for being critical of the Saudi Arabia government and for calling free elections in Saudi Arabia.

Iranian state media has said in recent months that pilgrims would be able to head to the Saudi holy city of Makkah for Umrah, but blamed technical difficulties for repeated delays.

Published in Dawn, April 23nd, 2024