In a statement issued on the eve of the first anniversary of Mina tragedy in which thousands of Hajj pilgrims were killed, including at least 462 Iranian pilgrims, Zarif said the conduct of the Mina issue will be one of the key factors influencing future relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif

He said that the Saudi regime, whose longstanding unity with the Zionist regime has become evident today, has taken hostage the holy shrines to implement its cheap and spiteful policies to serve the global hegemony and the Zionist regime.

Obstinacy, bias and immeasurable wealth have turned the rule of the Household of Saud into a ruthless and illogical kind of regime, Zarif said.

The foreign minister said that wicked and suspicious hands can be seen behind all the crises in important parts of the Middle East that have targeted the destiny of the Muslim Ummah and the unity of the Muslim World against the joint threat of Zionism and international terrorism.

Noting the Foreign Ministry respects its duty to protect the life, dignity and the assets of every Iranian outside the country, he said that after the unjustified attack on the Saudi embassy in Tehran, the Riyadh regime blocked all the diplomatic ways for pursuing Mina tragedy.

He accused the Saudi regime for failing to respond to all the initiatives put forward by Iran, including, bilateral efforts, proposing to set up an Islamic international fact-finding committee by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and even brotherly and voluntarily efforts by some Islamic regional countries, to vindicate the rights of the families of Iranian victims of human tragedy occured in Mina last year.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Leader demanded an inquiry be held by the international and the Islamic organizations to determine the stages which led to such a magnitude human tragedy in Mina last year, IRNA reported.

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