Iranian Muslims travelled Monday to Saudi Arabia for umrah, a year-round pilgrimage they had been barred from for almost a decade over a rift between Tehran and Riyadh, Iranian state media said.
“The first group of umrah pilgrims departed Iran for Saudi Arabia through the Imam Khomeini airport in Tehran”, official news agency IRNA reported.
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They are the first Iranians to make the pilgrimage since Tehran and Riyadh agreed in a China-brokered deal last year to restore ties and reopen their respective embassies after more than nine years.
Iranians have already been allowed back at the hajj pilgrimage last year, but the umrah had remained off-limits for them until now.
Saudi Arabia and Iran severed ties in 2016 after Saudi diplomatic missions in Iran were attacked during protests over Riyadh’s execution of Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr.
Iranian state media has said in recent months that pilgrims would be able to head to the Saudi holy city of Mecca for umrah, but blamed technical difficulties for repeated delays.
