Saudi incompetence behind Mina tragedy: Academic

Press TV has interviewed Alexander Azadgan, a professor of strategic global management & international political economy, in Tehran, to discuss Saudi Arabia’s handling of the recent Hajj tragedy.

Following is a rough transcription.

Press TV: More international criticism is coming in the way of the Saudis. It seems that each day that passes by more details emerge regarding the disaster in Mina. The Saudis have a lot to answer for now.

Azadgan: Yes. I think  this incident has truly demonstrated the incompetency of the Saudi government and the Saudi regime. Almost every two years we are having an incident like this. I was reviewing the history of this particular day during the past 15 years; I think it is time that the OIC (Organisation of Islamic Cooperation) and other Muslim consortiums put together an effort, as you stated, to manage this not just by the Saudi regime, but by the entire Muslim community.

 It is very important that we engaged in this media effort to expose this incompetency, not just when it comes to this incident, but also when it comes to the overall Saudi policy during the past year or so.

I think we are seeing a total coup in the Saudi government system; King Salman is employing a cadre of new Saudi princes that are very aggressive, that are very brute in their approach, and this is unprecedented at least when we go back to King Abdullah before him. But to be more fair and balanced, we also need better management systems to coordinate the Iranian pilgrims more effectively and efficiently. Not that this incident has anything to do whatsoever with efficiency issues as the Saudi propaganda machine is falsely pointing out.

Press TV: Sir, you just also echoed comments made by Mowaffak al-Rubaie, a former national security adviser to Iraq. He also stated that major Muslim countries should now be involved in managing the Hajj affairs. What kind of a response are you expecting to hear from the Saudis with regards to such statements?

Azadgan: Well, naturally the Saudis wouldn’t want to diminish power over managing these holy sites, both in Mecca and Medina. So we should expect that kind of reaction from them. But we should very effectively coordinate this media affair in pointing this out. This is not a Shia-Sunni issue as some in Saudi Arabia may point out, absolutely not! This is a Muslim issue, I may point out that out of the two thousand who were killed, only approximately 300 were Iranians, this is not a sectarian issue.

This is simply a mismanagement and lack of coordination issue by the Saudis. They have proven their total incompetence when it comes to this. We cannot let this go by, we cannot have this incident two years from now just like we have been having for the past god knows how many years and we need to address this very effectively and continue to cover this issue and not diminish a bit.

I was quite happy to see President Rouhani devote a significant portion of his speech at the UN yesterday, when it comes to this. We must shed a lot of light on this when it comes to global coverage, as Press TV is doing so wonderfully.

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