Hajj pilgrim arrested by Saudi Arabia returns to Iran

Launch of Khalil Dardmand some three months after his arrest comes after mediation efforts by Oman and Iraq.

Iran and Saudi Arabia have held 5 rounds of direct talks since April 2021 [File: Joe Klamar and Ozan Kose/AFP]

Tehran, Iran – An Iranian nationwide who was arrested some three months in the past by Saudi Arabian authorities throughout the Hajj pilgrimage has returned to Iran.

Native media confirmed on Wednesday the arrival of Khalil Dardmand on Monday by way of “the airway of a Persian Gulf neighbouring nation”.

Iran’s Overseas Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian had beforehand stated his counterparts from Oman and Iraq mediated in efforts to launch the Iranian citizen.

Dardmand was purportedly arrested after posting on his Twitter account a picture of slain Iranian Normal Qassem Soleimani beside the Kaaba, the constructing on the centre of the Masjid al-Haram mosque in Mecca.

Soleimani, the commander of the Quds Pressure of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and architect of Iran’s regional safety equipment, was assassinated by the US on January 3, 2020, in a drone strike in Iraq’s capital, Baghdad.

ازکنار کعبه،شب جمعه و یادشهدا باصلوات pic.twitter.com/D4dJAZFlVv

— خلیل دردمند (@khalildardmand) June 30, 2022

Iranian native media stated Dardmand on Wednesday met Abdul Fattah Nawab, the Iranian supreme chief’s consultant in Hajj affairs, and Sadegh Hosseini, the pinnacle of the nation’s Hajj and Pilgrimage Group, throughout which he stated Saudi Arabian authorities tried to accuse him of “unfaithful prices”.

The pilgrim’s household earlier this week informed state-affiliated media that that they had not spoken to him or knew the place he was imprisoned till shortly earlier than his launch was secured.

Dardmand’s arrest had created new tensions between regional rivals Iran and Saudi Arabia, who lower diplomatic relations in 2016 after crowds attacked Saudi diplomatic missions in Tehran in response to the execution of a distinguished Shia cleric by the Sunni-majority kingdom.

The 2 have held 5 rounds of direct talks mediated by Iraq since April 2021, and a sixth spherical has been within the works for months.

The talks have up to now been held on the stage of safety officers. It stays unclear whether or not the following spherical will contain international ministers with the goal of finally reopening embassies and re-establishing formal ties.