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Iran Offers Support To Saudi Arabia After Mecca Incident


Muslim pilgrims circle the Kaaba at the Grand mosque in Mecca, Saudi Arabia September 8, 2016.
Muslim pilgrims circle the Kaaba at the Grand mosque in Mecca, Saudi Arabia September 8, 2016.

Condemning the Friday terror attack near the Great Mosque in Islam's holiest city, Mecca, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, expressed Iran’s readiness to provide support for Saudi Arabia's fight against what he called “merchants of death, criminals and the inciters of hatred.”

Amid the latest flare up of tensions in the region and especially mutual accusations between Iran and Saudi Arabia, Iran's announcement amounts to a token olive branch.

According to the Islamic Republic’s official News Agency, IRNA, Bahram Qassemi said on Saturday, June 24, “The foiled plot by terrorists to launch an attack on the Great Mosque of Mecca once again indicated the fact that the unbridled terrorism, targeting the world, region and especially Muslims and the Islamic nations, knows no religion, geography, race and nationality.”

He went on to say that Iran denounces terrorism in any form, any place and with any tendency.

Saudi Arabia accuses Iran of interference in the region and especially in Syria and Yemen. Suadis are fighting a full-fledged proxy war in Yemen against Iran supported Houthi rebels.

According to news agency reports, six foreign pilgrims were wounded when a suicide bomber blew himself up near the Grand Mosque in Mecca, where hundreds of thousands of worshippers had gathered for prayers on the last Friday of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

The Saudi interior ministry was quoted as saying, “A wider plot had been foiled with the arrest of five suspects earlier in the day.”

Saudi security forces trapped the would be suicide bomber inside an apartment and immediately an exchange of fire broke out.

Being surrounded, the trapped would-be suicide bomber set off the explosives he was carrying.

Immediately after the explosion, the building collapsed, injuring six foreigners and five members of the security forces.

It is not yet clear who was behind the plot to attack the mosque.

Saudi Arabia has experienced a series of armed and bomb attacks in recent years.

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