Two MILLION Muslims head to Mecca for holy Hajj pilgrimage two years after stampede killed over 2,000 worshippers
Iranian Muslims have returned to Islam's holiest site following tensions between the Shiite nation and Sunni Saudi Arabia after the disaster.
MORE than two million Muslims from throughout the world have travelled to Saudi Arabia for the hajj pilgrimage - two years after a deadly stampede killed more than 2,000 people.
These stunning photos show tens of thousands of Muslims at the Kaaba at the Grand Mosque in Mecca.
And this year tens of thousands of Muslim faithful from Iran have flocked to Saudi Arabia after their absence last year following a massive stampede in 2015 that killed around 2,300 people, including 464 Iranians.
The tragedy sparked bitter recrimination from Tehran over the kingdom's custodianship of the sites in Mecca and Medina, western Saudi Arabia.
For the first time in nearly three decades, Iranian pilgrims were barred from the hajj last year, after several rounds of negotiations between the two Gulf heavyweights failed to overcome political and procedural differences.
Adding a further obstacle, the Sunni kingdom cut all ties with Shiite Iran in January 2016 after its diplomatic missions in Tehran and Mashhad were torched by protesters angered by Saudi Arabia's execution of a prominent Shiite figure.
But under a deal struck in March, about 86,000 Iranians have now arrived in Saudi Arabia for the hajj, joining two million Muslims from across the globe in converging on Mecca.
"I'm happy to see so many Iranians here... Political issues shouldn't interfere in a religious duty, especially the hajj," Abbas Ali, a 54-year-old Iranian, said Monday at Jeddah airport that is the main entry point for pilgrims.
"It's very difficult to describe my feelings. We shouldn't stop coming here because all of us are Muslims," the newly-arrived "haji" from Zahedan in eastern Iran told AFP.
However, Qatar has sent only dozens of its citizens across the border to Saudi Arabia for this week's hajj pilgrimage because of the increasingly bitter crisis between the Gulf neighbours.
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Qatar's only land border, which it shares with Saudi Arabia, has been closed and travel, diplomatic and economic sanctions imposed over charges that Doha supports Islamist extremists and has too close ties to Riyadh's regional rival Iran.
Doha has strongly denied the accusations.
Impacting on the hajj, only a few dozen Qatari nationals have been able to travel to Mecca and Medina, western Saudi Arabia, according to a member of Qatar's state-linked National Human Rights Committee (NHRC).
"Through the border, we estimate 60 to 70 people (travelled) last week," he told AFP. "It's not an official figure, we are waiting for an official figure."
Media reports in Saudi Arabia have put the number at up to 1,200 Qataris.
In sharp contrast, 12,000 Qataris took part in last year's hajj, a pillar of Islam that capable Muslims must perform at least once in their lives, according to the state-run Qatar News Agency.