AP | AMIR VAHDAT and JON GAMBRELL: The coronavirus outbreak disrupted Islamic worship in the Middle East as Saudi Arabia on Wednesday banned its citizens and other residents of the kingdom from performing the pilgrimage in Mecca, while Iran canceled Friday prayers in major cities. The decisions in Riyadh and Tehran affected both Sunni and Shia Muslims ...

RT - Saudi Arabia has imposed a temporary ban on religious pilgrimage, known as Umrah, to historic Islamic shrines in Mecca and Medina over the coronavirus outbreak that has recently spread to the Middle East. The oil-rich kingdom announced on Wednesday that the restrictions were put in place to provide the utmost protection to those living in Saudi ...

IRNA The last flight carrying Hajj pilgrims from Saudi Arabia landed in Imam Khomeini International Airport on Sunday, marking the end of 316 return flights. According to the Civil Aviation Organization of Islamic Republic of Iran (CAO.IRI), the return process of 85,700 pilgrims consisted of total 316 flights, 185 of which were done by the Iran ...

MNA Iranian Hajj pilgrims are planned to start returning home from Monday all through Sep. 15, according to an Iranian airports official. The director of Iranian Hajj Operations Department at the Air Fleet and Airports Company Mahmoud Razavi said on Saturday that the first return flight will leave Medina for Irans Bushehr airport on August 27 and ...

Tasnim - Millions of Muslims celebrated the Eid al-Adha in Mecca on Tuesday during the annual Hajj pilgrimage. The Saudi Al-Quran TV channel showed hundreds of thousands of Muslim pilgrims walking around the Kaaba and praying in Mecca on the day of Festival of the Sacrifice. Eid al-Adha, or the Festival of the Sacrifice, honors Ibrahim, the messenger ...

IRNA First group of Iranian pilgrims comprising 270 people are to leave Tehran for the city of Medina in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday (July 18), it was announced on Tuesday. Talking to the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA), Head of Hajj and Pilgrimage Organization (HPO) Hamid Mohammadi said the pilgrims would travel to Saudi Arabia on daily basis ...

Khamenei.ir - As the time for Abrahamic rituals of Hajj approaches the time when people leave for Mecca to perform Hajj organizers and officials of Irans Hajj organization met with the Leader of the Revolution, Ayatollah Khamenei, this morning (Monday) July 16, 2018. At this meeting, the Leader of the Revolution stressed: Hajj represents a field ...

Press TV- A winch crane has collapsed near the Grand Mosque in the holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia andleftone person injured, raising fresh worries about the safety of pilgrims who visit the site from around the world. The incident on Sunday came during Ramadan,the most sacred month for Muslims, when the Grand Mosque is among the most crowded ...

RT- Muslims may lose Mecca and other holy sites if the US decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israeli capital isnt reversed, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has warned If we lose Jerusalem then we wont be able to protect Medina. If we lose Medina we will lose Mecca and Kaaba,Erdogan said in a speech at an award ceremony in Istanbul. Erdogan ...

IRNA A senior Iranian official said here that Iran's Hajj and Pilgrimage Organization would pursue the case of Takfiri terrorists' attack on an Iranian cleric in Mecca during Hajj congregation, it was reported Thursday evening. Head of Iran's Hajj and Pilgrimage Organization Hamid Mohammadi said Tehran attaches great importance to the security of ...

IFP - A cleric accompanying Iranian Hajj pilgrims has been wounded after unknown terrorists attacked him in the holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia. According to a statement by Irans Hajj and Pilgrimage Organisation, a group of unknown elements on Wednesday evening (18:30 local time) attacked Iranian cleric Hossein Esmaeili, who was accompanying ...

IFP - The governor of the holy city of Mecca has referred to Iranians and Saudi Arabians as religious brothers, expressing the hope that Iranian pilgrims would remember the Saudis with a good impression. In a press conference, the Emir of Mecca Khalid al-Faisal noted that Iranians are our religious brothers and we warmly welcomed their ...

 

Tasnim The number of Iranians who have died while performing Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia this year rose to eight after three men passed away on Sunday. The three old pilgrims from Iran died in Mecca due to heart attacks. Eight Iranian travelers have died in Saudi Arabia so far during this years Hajj pilgrimage. More than 86,000 Iranian ...

Press TV - Saudi Arabia has claimed that Qatar is stopping its planes from landing in Doha to take pilgrims to Mecca. Last week, Riyadh announced that it would open its borders with Qatar to allow Muslim pilgrims' access to Mecca to observe their Hajj rituals. At the time Qatar hailed the move, but stressed that it was politically motivated ...

RT | Ms. Marwa Osman: How fair is it that Islams holiest sites, Mecca and Medina, are controlled by Saudi Arabia, with the wealthy kingdom often using them as a political tool to increase its already huge influence in the Muslim world? Perhaps, its time to find a solution to the dilemma of ruling the Islamic holy sites by a small fraction of Muslims....

AP) -- The Latest on a foiled plot targeting the Grand Mosque in the holy Muslim city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia (all times local): 1 p.m. Lebanon's Hezbollah has condemned a bombing near the Grand Mosque in Mecca. Saudi security officials said Saturday that a suicide bomber blew himself up near the Grand Mosque as police disrupted a plot to target ...

AP-- A suicide bomber blew himself up near the Grand Mosque in Mecca as police disrupted a plot to target the holiest site in Islam just as the fasting month of Ramadan ends, Saudi security forces said Saturday. The Interior Ministry said it launched a raid around Jiddah, as well as two areas in Mecca itself, including the Ajyad Al-Masafi neighborhood,...

An Iranian official says Saudi Arabia has deliberately barred Iranians from making the Hajj pilgrimage and refused to discuss waysto prevent the reoccurrence of a deadly crush during last years Hajj rituals in Mina, near the holy city of Mecca. It was "unacceptable" to deprive the faithful Iranian people of the chance to perform the Hajj rituals,...

Millions of Muslims from around the world are gathering in Saudi Arabia to perform special ceremonies for the annual Hajj pilgrimage. Close to 1.5 million Muslims descended Thursday on the Saudi holy city of Mecca to perform the five-day rituals. The major Hajj rituals are performed from the 8th through the 12th of Dhu al-Hijjah, the last ...