Saudi Reinstates Pilgrimage Flights To Iranians After Detente
Since last year's detente between Saudi Arabia and Iran, Saudi has reinstated pilgrimage flights, enabling 90,000 Iranians to participate in this year's Hajj pilgrimage.
Since last year's detente between Saudi Arabia and Iran, Saudi has reinstated pilgrimage flights, enabling 90,000 Iranians to participate in this year's Hajj pilgrimage.
The revival of Hajj comes after nearly a decade, following a bilateral agreement mediated over a year ago, which led to the reopening of embassies and the exchange of ambassadors.
On Monday the first group of Iranian Umrah pilgrims departed from Tehran’s main airport, attended by dignitaries from both nations.
The breakdown in relations reached a nadir in 2016 when Saudi Arabia cut ties following the storming of its embassy in Tehran. The tensions escalated with Iran-backed Houthi militia's missile and drone attacks on Saudi oil assets and shipping in the Persian Gulf.
The current détente has facilitated the operation of two daily flights, as per the Iranian regime, each carrying 260 passengers, from various Iranian cities, continuing until May 12. A total of 44 round trips are scheduled to transport 5,610 Iranian pilgrims to Saudi Arabia for the Umrah, an Islamic pilgrimage that can be undertaken at any time of the year, unlike the Hajj which is held annually as per the Islamic lunar calendar.
Despite attempts to mend their relationship, including high-level meetings and agreements on diplomatic and security cooperation, Saudi Arabia and Iran have not yet achieved significant breakthroughs in their dealings.
Although there have been talks about potential cooperation areas, such as Saudi investments in Iran's economy, significant disagreements on regional issues remain unresolved. It is compounded by Iran's ongoing nuclear enrichment and support for terror proxies such as Yemen's Houthi militia which Saudi has been at war with for a decade as the oil-rich nation continues to lead a coalition in Yemen's civil war.
Project Nour, the regime’s new hijab enforcement plan, has seen Iranian authorities escalate their physical efforts to enforce the Islamic Republic’s strict hijab laws. It has led to a surge in violent crackdowns targeting women on Iranian streets.
Earlier this week, Ahmad-Reza Radan, Iran's Chief of Police and commander of the country's Law Enforcement Command, announced that the police would continue the “Project Nour” with the support of the parliament, the government, and the judiciary, with "strength and precision."
In 2010, Radan was sanctioned by the US, EU and the UK for serious human rights violations and his role in the deadly and violent repression of protests during Iran’s 2009 green movement.
As reported by state-run IRIB, Radan thanked his colleagues “who are diligently involved in implementing this plan and are pursuing it with a jihadistic spirit.”
In another significant escalation, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) also announced its participation in the enforcement efforts, forming groups known as "Mehr Ambassadors" to uphold the strict Islamic dress code for women.
Hassan Hassanzadeh, Tehran’s IRGC commander, emphasized that the group’s rigorous training aims to enforce hijab regulations with heightened intensity in public spaces.
Hassanzadeh was sanctioned in 2022 by Western countries for his role in the violent crackdown on nationwide anti-regime protests – often called the Women, Life, Freedom uprising, sparked by the killing of Mahsa Jina Amini in police custody.
Since the launch of the “Nour” project, reports have emerged detailing disturbing instances of police officers extorting money from women in exchange for leniency, alongside allegations of theft and sexual harassment.
The situation has raised alarm both domestically and internationally, with human rights organizations, student groups and prominent activists decrying the Iranian authorities’ violations of basic freedoms and human rights.
Despite the Iranian officials' scrambling to soften criticism of the hijab crackdown, speeches by Supreme Leader Khamenei and President Ebrahim Raisi triggered a new round of suppression on unveiled women.
The regime’s enforcement campaign has also drawn condemnation from other quarters, including “The Laleh Park Mothers” also known as “Mourning Mothers” – a group of Iranian women whose family members were killed during the 2009 protests.
In their statement, issued on Monday, they condemned the renewed assault on women's freedoms, accusing the government of resorting to brutality to deflect attention from its failures.
"...with the order of Ali Khamenei with the plan of chastity and hijab in the name of “Nour", the war against women is more than intense,” the statement read.
Iran analyst and journalist Morad Vaisi posited that the recent efforts are the regime's attempt to reclaim control over women's rights, stating, “Women occupied many strongholds in the past years and forced the Islamic Republic to retreat, now the regime wants to take these strongholds back from women. Also, Khamenei has a grudge against women and feels inferior.”