Ayatollah Khamenei, the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, met Monday morning with hajj officials. Speaking at the meeting, His Eminence described the very bitter and shocking event of Mina as a divine test and criticized the silence of governments - particularly western governments and those organizations that claim to support human rights - on this grave catastrophe. He stressed: "This event should not be consigned to oblivion in any way and the diplomacy of the country and the hajj organization are responsible for pursuing this matter in a very decisive way."
The Leader of the Islamic Revolution pointed to the responsibility of the host government towards the death of seven thousand Muslims, saying: "After this incident, the unanimous voice of the world of Islam should have been raised in protest, but unfortunately no voice was heard except for the voice of the Islamic Republic. Even those governments whose hajj pilgrims were among the deceased did not lodge any noticeable protest in the face of this catastrophe."
His Eminence stressed that pursing this matter and negotiating with other governments with the purpose of clarifying the significance of this event and finding ways to prevent it from happening again is the important responsibility of the officials of the country, particularly diplomats, adding: "It looks, on the face of it, that this catastrophe took place as a result of the negligence of the host government, but in any case, this issue is not a political one, rather the issue is about the thousands of Muslims who lost their lives during praying and performing hajj rituals and while they were wearing the clothes of ihram. Therefore, this issue should be pursued in a serious way."
He mentioned that the complete silence of those organizations that claim to support human rights in Europe and America is another reason why this issue should be pursued. He reiterated: "These untruthful and hypocritical organizations - that claim to advocate human rights - and western governments lapsed into complete silence in favor of their allied government. This is while they often make a fuss when one single individual dies. If these so-called advocates of human rights were sincere, they should have asked [the host government] to accept its responsibility, to compensate for the losses, to guarantee that it will not be repeated again and to punish those responsible for this catastrophe."
The Leader of the Islamic Revolution said that pursuing this incident and keeping it alive is an important responsibility of the hajj organization, adding: "This issue should not be consigned to oblivion and it should be highlighted in international communities for many years. And this move should target western governments and those organizations that claim to advocate human rights."
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