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Ayatollah Ali Khamenei

RIYADH. — Saudi Arabia’s top religious authority said Iran’s leaders were not Muslims, drawing a rebuke from Tehran in an unusually harsh exchange between the regional rivals over the running of the annual haj pilgrimage.

The war of words on the eve of the mass pilgrimage will deepen a long-running rift between the Sunni kingdom and the Shi’ite revolutionary power.

They back opposing sides in Syria’s civil war and a list of other conflicts across the Middle East. Tensions between them have been rising since Saudi Arabia cut ties with Iran in January following the storming of its embassy in Tehran, itself a response to the Saudi execution of a dissident Shi’ite cleric.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in a message published on Monday, criticised Saudi Arabia over how it runs the haj after a crush last year killed hundreds of pilgrims.

He said Saudi authorities had “murdered” some of them, describing Saudi rulers as godless and irreligious.

Responding to a question by Saudi newspaper Makkah, Saudi Arabia’s Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdulaziz Al al-Sheikh said he was not surprised at Khamenei’s comments.

“We have to understand that they are not Muslims. Their main enemies are the followers of Sunnah (Sunnis),” Al al-Sheikh was quoted as saying in remarks republished by the Arab News.

This year pilgrims from Iran will be unable to attend the haj, which officially starts on September 11, after talks between the two nations on arrangements broke down in May.

Khamenei met families of Iranians killed in last year’s disaster on Wednesday and called for a fact-finding committee to probe the cause of the crush. — Reuters.