{"id":12002,"date":"2018-08-19T02:22:47","date_gmt":"2018-08-19T02:22:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=12002"},"modified":"2018-08-19T02:22:47","modified_gmt":"2018-08-19T02:22:47","slug":"qatar-accuses-saudi-arabia-of-blocking-access-to-hajj","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=12002","title":{"rendered":"Qatar accuses Saudi Arabia of blocking access to Hajj"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Qatar<\/a> has accused Saudi Arabia of barring its nationals from performing this year’s Hajj, a charge Saudi officials deny.<\/p>\n

Around 1,200 Qatari citizens are allowed to attend the pilgrimage under a quota system, but Qatari officials say it has become impossible to register for the annual religious event.<\/p>\n

Saudi Arabia<\/a>, alongside the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Egypt, severed relations with Qatar in June 2017<\/a>, and has placed the Gulf state under a land, sea, and air blockade<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Qatari nationals are also banned from entering the states, but Riyadh claims to have made an exception for the Hajj.<\/p>\n

In June, Saudi Arabia’s ministry for the Hajj announced the opening of a website, which allowed Qataris to register for the pilgrimage. However, those in Qatar say registration is impossible.<\/p>\n

Abdullah al-Kaabi of the state-run Qatar National Human Rights Committee said Saudi Arabia had shut down the system used by travel agencies to obtain permits.<\/p>\n

“There is no chance this year for Qatari citizens and residents to travel for Hajj,” he told the Reuters news agency.<\/p>\n

“Registration of pilgrims from the State of Qatar remains closed, and residents of Qatar cannot be granted visas as there are no diplomatic missions.”<\/p>\n

According to Reuters news agency, three travel agencies in Doha said they had stopped trying to sell Hajj packages.<\/p>\n

“Last year we lost a lot of money as the crisis started after we had booked everything in Mecca and Medina and we had to pay people back,” said a manager of one travel agency in Doha, declining to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter.<\/p>\n

Riyadh temporarily opened the land border for the Hajj last year, but has not done so this year.<\/p>\n

Saudi officials reject the accusations and accuse Qatar of trying to politicise the Hajj.<\/p>\n

\n

Saudi main newspaper front page headline calls for regime change in #Qatar<\/a> or else its citizens will be prohibited from the #Hajj<\/a>. Saudi continues politicizing the Hajj and using the religious pilgrimage for political leverage. pic.twitter.com\/3WFgHarjVK<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Mohammed Al-Jufairi (@Halawala) August 11, 2018<\/a>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Last week, Saudi Arabia’s leading daily, Okaz<\/a>, ran a front page calling on Qataris to choose between the “House of God” or the “Hamads”, a reference to the country’s former Emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, and former Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim Al Thani.<\/p>\n

The Hajj<\/a> is a religious pilgrimage for Muslims that must be carried out at least once in a lifetime by all who are physically and financially capable of undertaking the journey.<\/p>\n

The event takes place once a year and culminates in the festival of Eid al-Adha, one of the two major Islamic holidays.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\n SOURCE: Al Jazeera and news agencies<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Qatar has accused Saudi Arabia of barring its nationals from performing this year’s Hajj, a charge Saudi officials deny. Around 1,200 Qatari citizens are allowed to attend the pilgrimage under a quota system, but Qatari officials say it has become impossible to register for the annual religious event. Saudi Arabia, alongside the United Arab Emirates,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":12003,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12002","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12002"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12002\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12003"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}