Iranian pilgrims are still welcome to visit holiest sites in Saudi Arabia despite increased tensions between the two countries, Riyadh's foreign minister said on Thursday. "Any Muslim is welcome in Makkah and Medina... and this includes the Iranian pilgrims," Adel al-Jubeir told reporters. He said the political crisis between the Sunni-ruled kingdom and its predominantly Shia rival "has nothing to do at all" with the annual Hajj pilgrimage and Umra.
In January, protesters burned Riyadh's embassy in Tehran and a consulate in Iran's second city of Mashhad to protest the Saudi execution of a prominent cleric from the minority Shia community.