Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Aug. 07 – Iran’s Foreign Minister has strongly criticised the police in Saudi Arabia for fingerprinting Iranians including a senior aide to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Iran Focus
Tehran, Iran, Aug. 07 – Iran’s Foreign Minister has strongly criticised the police in Saudi Arabia for fingerprinting Iranians including a senior aide to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Manouchehr Mottaki blasted the Saudi police for “unacceptable … and offensive behaviour” toward the Representative of the Leader of the Islamic Revolutions for Hajj and Pilgrimage Affairs, Ayatollah Mohammad Mohammadi Reyshahri, state television reported on Wednesday.
Iran’s envoy to Riyadh would pursue the issue, Mottaki said.
At the end of his weeklong visit to Saudi Arabia, Reyshahri accused Saudi police of mistreating Iranian students, particularly at holy Islamic sites.
Saudi police began fingerprinting Iranians entering the country for Hajj rituals in August 2007 as a precautionary anti-terrorism measure.
Reyshahri was the Islamic Republic’s first Minister of Intelligence and Security and is suspected of masterminding a string of terrorist attacks against Iranian dissidents.