Iranian Pilgrims to Perform Umrah after 9 Years
The 500 pilgrims will take two flights from Tehran and Mashhad international airports to the holy city of Medina.
Six hotels in Medina will accommodate them for five days before they leave for Mecca to stay in four hotels there.
According to plans, more than 5,000 Iranian pilgrims will perform Umrah in the lunar Hijri month of Shawwal (will end on May 10.
The first batch of pilgrims from Iran had been scheduled to take part in Umrah for the first time after 9 years in December last year but the dispatch was delayed due to some problems.
Umrah differs from Hajj in that the latter is a lengthier visit which is done once a year and performed once in a lifetime by able-bodied Muslims who can afford it.
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Iran stopped sending Umrah pilgrims to Saudi Arabia after two Iranian teenage boys were harassed in an airport in the Saudi city of Jeddah in March 2015.
That came nearly a year before the two countries cut their diplomatic relations.
Iran and Saudi Arabia re-established diplomatic ties in March 2023 through a China-mediated agreement, marking a significant development after severing relations in 2016.
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