Iran still pursuing Mina tragedy

End of the search for nationals lost in Mina tragedy of September 24 does not mean the end of legal and political follow-up procedures, underlined Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hossein Jaberi Ansari in his presser on the sidelines of the ceremony welcoming the body of Iran’s former ambassador to Beirut who was on pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia and was repatriated after 2 months of Saudi’s denial.

Saying that the Iranians will never forget the incident, Jaber Ansari lamented that the event started with Saudis’ mismanagement and the flaw lasted till the end, prolonging the repatriation of the missed pilgrims including Mr. Roknabadi.

There are still some Iranian victims whose bodies have not been returned to the Islamic Republic of Iran and their fate is still probed by authorized entities, asserted the foreign ministry’s spokesman.

The diplomat assured that a plethora of measures have been devised to react to Saudi regime’s misdeeds whether directly, internationally, or inter-Islamicly.

He voiced hope that the case would be treated in a way to guarantee that there would be no such incidents in future.

When questioned about the remaining 14 missing victims, the diplomat noted that the same procedure as what was done about Mr. Roknabadi would be followed for the 14 missed pilgrims with sending close relatives for blood sampling and DNA look-up.

Apparently, Roknabadi has been among the first batch of killed pilgrims in Mina accident who were buried in Mecca.

Immediately after the incident and while the Iranian diplomat had gone missing, the Saudi media, particularly Al Arabiya, launched a wave of lies the most prominent of which was the denial of Rokanadi’s entry to Saudi Arabia and his presence in Hajj rituals.

Ghazanfar Roknabadi was one of the most committed, experienced and revolutionary forces who had spent 14 years of his working life in Syria and Lebanon being in direct contact with the axis of resistance forces.