Iranians to hold nationwide protest in condemnation of Saudi, Bahraini crimes

Iranian mourners take part in a funeral procession for some of the Iranian pilgrims who were killed in a stampede at the annual Hajj crush in Tehran on October 4, 2015. ©AFP

Iranians are set to take to the streets nationwide to denounce the Saudi crimes as well as the Bahraini regime’s crackdown on political dissidents.

Iran’s Islamic Propagation Coordination Council said the protest rallies will be held across the country, including the capital, Tehran. The marches will begin from more than 850 places where Friday Prayers take place.

Friday’s demonstration will be a show of support for the oppressed people of Bahrain and the country’s leading Shia cleric, Sheikh Isa Qassim, who recently had his nationality revoked by the Al Khalifa regime.

The demonstrations will also commemorate the victims of last year’s human crush during Hajj rituals in Mina, near the holy city of Mecca.

Iranians demonstrators will chant “Down with Al Saud and Al Khalifah” to show their anger at the inhumane conduct of the two repressive regimes.

The tragic Mina incident took place when two large masses of pilgrims converged at a crossroads during the symbolic ceremony of the stoning of Satan in Jamarat in September 2015.

A Muslim pilgrim walks through the site where dead bodies are gathered at the site of a crush in Mina, near Mecca, Saudi Arabia, September 24, 2015.©AP

Saudi Arabia claims that nearly 770 people were killed in the incident; however, Iran, which had the greatest number of deaths among foreign nationals, has put the death toll at about 4,700.

On Wednesday, Leader of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei said the Islamic Republic was the only critical voice against the deaths of pilgrims during the 2015 Hajj rituals and criticized human rights organizations and other countries for choosing to remain silent on the issue.

Ayatollah Khamenei also said that the Saudi rulers’ failure to guarantee the security of Hajj pilgrims proved that the kingdom did not merit the custodianship of Islam’s two Holy Mosques.

Elsewhere in Bahrain, there has been a wave of anti-regime protests since mid-February 2011.

With the help of Saudi Arabia, the Manama regime has launched a heavy-handed crackdown on peaceful critics and opposition figures.

Sheikh Qassim was among those targeted in Manama’s policy of repression. He had his citizenship revoked back in June, with Bahrain’s Interior Ministry accusing the clergyman of seeking the “creation of a sectarian environment.” He has rejected the accusation.