Iranian pilgrims return to Haj in Saudi Arabia

Beirut: Nearly 90,000 Iranians are expected to attend the Haj this year, and were due to start arriving on Sunday, after Tehran boycotted the pilgrimage last year amid tensions with Saudi Arabia.
Around 800 pilgrims were due to leave Iran on three flights to Medina on Sunday, the director of the Haj at Iran’s Haj and Pilgrimage Organisation, Nasrollah Farahmand told state media.
Approximately 86,500 Iranians are expected to attend the Haj in total this year and 800 coordinators have travelled to Saudi Arabia to help Iranians during the pilgrimage, he said.
Iran boycotted the Haj last year after hundreds of people, many of them Iranians, died in a crush at the pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia in 2015.
In February this year Iran sent a delegation to Saudi Arabia that initiated the process of Iranian pilgrims returning for the Haj.