In the most recent indication of improving ties between the two Gulf oil-producing countries, Iranian media said on Wednesday that Iran pilgrims will start visiting Saudi Arabia regularly for the first time in eight years on December 19.
According to the semi-official Fars news agency, flights carrying Iranians making the annual Umrah pilgrimage to the Islamic holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia will depart from ten airports around Iran.
Fars said that the first group of Iranian pilgrims to perform the Umrah will depart on December 19.
China negotiated a deal in March that saw the restoration of full diplomatic ties between Saudi Arabia and Iran, which had been severed in 2016 over Riyadh’s killing of a Shi’ite Muslim cleric and the subsequent seizure of the Saudi embassy in Tehran.
Since 2016, Iranian pilgrims have only been allowed to finish the Haj, a religious obligation that is strictly regulated by annual quotas and timings and is considered mandatory for Muslims who intend to perform it once in their lifetime.
It is now possible for Iranians to perform the Umrah as well; this “lesser pilgrimage” is not usually considered obligatory in Islam and can be done at any time of the year.
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