Ahmadinejad to peform hajj: official
TEHRAN (AFP) — Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is to perform the hajj in Saudi Arabia, the first time a president of the Islamic republic is to attend the annual Muslim pilgrimage, an official said Thursday.
Ahmadinejad's senior advisor Mojtaba Samareh Hashemi said that the president would be taking part in the hajj after receiving an invitation from Saudi King Abdullah.
"At the invitation of King Abdullah, President Ahmadinejad will take part in the hajj pilgrimage this year," Samareh Hashemi told the semi-official Mehr news agency, without disclosing his travel dates.
Ahmadinejad's media advisor Ali Akbar Javanfekr said on Wednesday the president had been invited to the annual pilgrimage to Islam's holiest sites in Mecca and Medina, located in western Saudi Arabia.
"It is the first time in the history of relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia that the king of this country invites a president of the Islamic republic to make the pilgrimage to Mecca," Javanfekr said.
"As a result, the visit of Ahmadinejad is considered to be an important event in the relations between the two countries," he added. It will be Ahmadinejad's third visit to the kingdom since taking office.
Saudi Arabia has announced that the high point of the hajj when pilgrims converge on Mount Arafat near Mecca would take place on December 18, and Eid al-Adha marking the end of the pilgrimage would be celebrated the next day.
Ahmadinejad's pilgrimage would be of significance as relations between Shiite majority Iran and Sunni majority Saudi Arabia have been rocky at times. Relations reached an all-time low in July 1987 when 402 people, mostly Iranians, were killed in clashes between Iranians and Saudi security forces during the hajj.
Riyadh was also at the time backing Saddam Hussein's Iraq in its 1980-1988 war against Iran.
Iran's late revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini subsequently accused the kingdom of being a lackey of the United States that was unable to look after holy sites.
But the two regional heavyweights have tried to give an impression of unity in recent years, vowing to work together to end the political crisis in Lebanon and bring stability to Iraq.
Ahead of this year's hajj, Iran has been urging Saudi Arabia to crack down on religious extremism following reports of anti-Shiite sermons and pamphlets in the kingdom.
Last month, Ahmadinejad publicly rebuked King Abdullah for the kingdom's participation in a US-hosted meeting aimed at finding peace between Israel and the Palestinians.
But he also became the first president of the Islamic republic to attend the end-of-year annual summit of Gulf Arab leaders that was held in Qatar earlier in December.
