Roknabadi was thought to have been among 464 Iranians killed in the Mina disaster near Mecca on September 24 in which his body was recently identified after almost two months of the hajj stampede. 

Few days after Mina disaster, Saudi officials claimed that there was no official record that Ghazanfar Asl Roknabadi entered Saudi Arabia, but the Iranian foreign ministry had documents showing that an ordinary Hajj visa had been approved for the deceased diplomat, Alalam News Network added.

After passing of almost 60 days, Saudi officials declared the body of Roknabadi, who was missing, and identified through fingerprints and DNA testing.

His body was finally returned to Iran on Friday September 27 through Tehran’s Mehrabad International Airport.

Roknabadi was born in Qom in 1966 and served as Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon from 2010 to 2014, Alalam News Network reported.

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