King Salam honors foreign dignitaries participating in Hajj

CAIRO – 2 September 2017: Saudi Arabia is keen to facilitate its services for the pilgrims during Hajj, said King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud, who held a ceremony for foreign dignitaries participating in Hajj on Saturday.

“Terrorism tried to target our sacred places… However, the Saudi Kingdom achieved a huge triumph against terrorism and its sources,” he said in his speech.

The ceremony was held for the foreign dignitaries participating in Hajj this year. It was attended by the Egyptian Prime Minister Sherif Ismail, Chief of the Military Staff Mahmoud Hegazy, and Grand Mufti Shawki Allam.

Few weeks before Hajj season, Qatari regime launched a major propaganda campaign aimed at emphasizing that Saudi Arabia is trying to politicize hajj for Qatari pilgrims in light of the dispute between Qatar and the four Arab countries (Egypt, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.) The four Arab countries closed their aerospace and maritime ports for Qatari transportation over Doha’s “support of terrorist groups.”

Qatar's Ministry of Awqaf has closed registration for hajj this year in an effort to reduce the number of Qatari pilgrims and accused Saudi Arabia of falsely politicizing hajj. However, Saudi Arabia has repeatedly declared its keenness to receive Qatari pilgrims as it does every year in order to thwart Doha’s attempt to politicize the case.

On August 16, King Salman directed all Qatari pilgrims to enter into Saudi territories without electronic visas via Salwa border crossing. He also said he will bear all the Qatari pilgrims’ expenses.