TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Supporters of the Saudi regime, mainly the US, have role of accomplice to crimes committed by the kingdom in the Mina tragedy that killed thousands of Hajj pilgrims last year, and in the killing of Muslims in Yemen, Syria, Iraq and Bahrain, Leader of the Islamic Revolution said.

Supporters of the Saudi regime are known as accomplices to its crimes in the Mina tragedy, Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei said in Tehran on Wednesday, in a gathering of families of the Iranian pilgrims who died in a crush of people in Mina, near Mecca, during last year’s Hajj pilgrimage.

“The shameless Saudi regime has flagrantly stood against Muslims with the backing of the US, and is shedding blood in Yemen, Syria, Iraq and Bahrain. Thus, the US and other supporters of Riyadh are accomplice to the Saudi crimes and atrocities,” Imam Khamenei explained.

The Leader also took a swipe at the Saudi-affiliated propaganda organizations for their attempts to spread the notion that the Mina tragedy signifies friction between Shiite and Sunni Muslims or between Arabs and non-Arabs.

Supporters of the Saudi rulers are trying to spread such an “outright lie” in a propaganda campaign, while “most of the 7,000 Mina martyrs, including a large number of Iranian martyrs, are Sunnis,” the Leader revealed.

The Al Saud, and the cruel terrorists created and trained by them, are butchering Arab people in Yemen, Syria, and Iraq, Ayatollah Khamenei deplored, saying that “contrary to the vicious Western propaganda, Saudis do not support the Arab people either, and the Mina case has nothing to do with a fabricated and media-made dispute between Arabs and non-Arabs.”

The Leader further slammed Saudis as a hated group in the Islamic world, who are showing hostility towards Muslims intentionally or unthinkingly, and called on the Muslim world to counter Saudis and express disgust at their masters, namely the US and Britain.

Ayatollah Khamenei once again highlighted Saudi Arabia’s incompetence in handling Hajj pilgrimage, stressing the need for the formation of an international Islamic fact-finding committee to probe into the Mina tragedy.

The Leader also criticized the international human rights organizations for hue and cry about judicial verdicts in some countries, and added, “Absolute silence on a government’s failure to fulfill its duties and on the death of 7,000 innocent and poor people, laid bare the false nature of the global advocates of human rights.”

More than 460 Iranians were among the thousands of pilgrims who died on September 24, 2015, in a crush in Mina, near Mecca, during the Hajj pilgrimage.

The incident marked the worst ever tragedy during Hajj.

By Tasnim News Agency