Iran summoned the Saudi envoy on Wednesday to demand the swift identification and repatriation of the bodies of Iranian pilgrims killed in a stampede at the hajj last week, AFP reports.
President Hassan Rouhani had cut short a visit to New York to fly home to attend a repatriation ceremony scheduled for Tuesday but the return of the first bodies was delayed.
The foreign ministry's consular affairs director, Ali Chegini, called on Saudi Arabia to speed up the process of identifying the remaining bodies of those killed in last Thursday's crush outside Mecca.