Health Minister: The likelihood of intentional poisoning of Saudi pilgrims is high

Iran's Health Minister regarding the poisoning of 33 Shia Saudi pilgrims in Mashhad stated that the possibility of this incident being intentional is high. Hassan Qazizadeh Hashemi, Iran's Health Minister, said on Tuesday, June 8, to the Fars News Agency: "Considering the evidence, I believe that from a medical perspective, the likelihood of this incident being intentional is greater than it being accidental. This possibility exists unless proven otherwise." Iranian domestic media reported on Sunday about the poisoning and death of several Saudi pilgrims in Mashhad, initially mentioning the number as 23. According to the latest statistics provided by the Tasnim News Agency, the number of poisoned Saudi pilgrims has reached 33, including 15 children and 14 adults (seven women and seven men). The news agency reported that three of them, including a 14-year-old girl and two boys around three years old, died due to severe health deterioration at Imam Reza Hospital, as well as a three-year-old child from this caravan in another hospital in Mashhad. The Iranian Health Minister added on Tuesday: "In this case, considering our issues with Saudi Arabia, this matter must be taken very seriously and communicated quickly, and anyone who has committed an offense or negligence must be dealt with." Ali Asghar Hassani, head of the environmental and occupational health group at Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, also explained that "based on investigations, hotel officials on the fifth floor of this hotel sprayed pesticides using aluminum phosphide tablets (organophosphorus pesticides), which caused the gas from this poison to spread to other floors and led to the poisoning of several Arabic-speaking pilgrims." Meanwhile, according to Tasnim, Ebrahim Raisi, Iran's Attorney General, reported the arrest of five individuals in connection with this incident and the closure of the hotel where it occurred. He added: "The Ministry of Intelligence, the police, and other sectors are working under the supervision of the Mashhad judiciary; however, the poison has been sent to Tehran for toxicology analysis." As the Iranian Health Minister mentioned on Tuesday, there have been tense issues in Iran-Saudi relations in recent months, one of which is the "sexual harassment" of two Iranian teenagers in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. According to Iranian officials, during the second week of the current Nowruz holidays, when inspecting an Iranian Umrah caravan, Jeddah airport officials separated two Iranian teenagers from the rest under the pretext of suspicion and sexually harassed them. Following the news of this incident and several protests in Tehran and other cities, Ali Jannati, the Minister of Culture, announced on April 13 that the Umrah pilgrimage for Iranian pilgrims would be halted until the trial and punishment of these officials. Saudi officials promised "the harshest punishment" for the negligent airport officials.