Iran bans pilgrimages from visiting Iraq through Syria
Iraq-Iran, Politics, 12/21/2000

The London- based al-Hayat daily said in its Wednesday's issue that the Iranian government has banned the travel of the Iranians to Iraq through a third country, including Syria. And this was expressed in a statement released on Tuesday by the al-Haj organization in Iran.

The paper added that the Syrian tourism companies promote and encourage the Iranians to visit the religious sites in Iraq and that those Iranians face hardships on their way back home to their country.

In a preliminary answer to the paper about this matter, the Syrian ambassador in Tehran Ahmad al-Hassan said that the decision of the Iranian organization to this effect has no political inclination, rather it relates to the programs of al-Haj organization in organizing trips to Iraq, similar to that organized by Saudi Arabia to perform the rituals of al-Haj and al-Omra.

He added he will organize this matter with the Iranian officials and refused to give details or more explanations.

The paper, on the other hand, learnt from Iranian sources on Wednesday that Tehran wants to fully control the file of the visit to Iraq especially that this issue of visits to the holy sites in Iraq is one of the issues, the center of negotiations between Iraq and Iran.

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