Saudi Arabia issued a warning Monday to participants in the annual Haj pilgrimage to Mecca not to turn it into a political event. According to a government statement issued in Riyadh, "We will seriously punish whoever breaches the security of participants."
The announcement came in response to a call by Supreme Iranian Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to exploit the haj to work against efforts to suppress Islam, as he put it, in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and "Palestine, which is being stifled."