Saudi Arabia's preparations to receive 2.5 million pilgrims

Saudi officials said that more than 300,000 Muslims have so far arrived in Saudi Arabia, most of them arrived by air in order to perform al-Haj religious rituals.

The last day for the arrival of the pilgrims is the fifth day which precedes the ritual of visiting Arafat Mount on February 11th. The Kingdom has intensified preparations to receive almost 2.5 million from outside and inside the Kingdom for this year amid fear of the eruption of war in Iraq.

The Director general of the Saudi airlines Khaled Bin Baker said that the company will transport 900,000 pilgrims, an increase of 17% over the figures of 2002, from 70 destination in 1754 flights.

Number of pilgrims to Mecca reached in 2002 about two millions.

The Saudi deputy minister of the interior prince Ahmad Bin Abdul Aziz said that 3.1 million pilgrims visas were issued at the Saudi mission abroad. It is expected that al-Haj rituals will be performed by hundreds of thousands of pilgrims from inside the kingdom.

Saudi Arabia's security forces are preparing to install barriers around the city, which is situated to the west of the kingdom in order to monitor and organize the traffic movement.

Prince Ahmad said that the Saudi security forces are prepared to enforce order during al-Haj rituals, especially in light of the tension resulting from the situation in Iraq.

About 9,000 pilgrims out of 17,000 Iraqi pilgrims will arrive via air for the first time since 1991.