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A Saudi Arabian airline recently resumed flights for Iranian Hajj pilgrims from Tehran for the first time in over ten years, marking a positive development in ties between both countries. According to reports, flights would also be operated from Mashhad in Iran that would allow over 35,000 Iranian pilgrims to travel to the kingdom, as reported by AFP.
An official from the Saudi Civil Aviation Authority notified AFP that, “Flynas resumed Iranian pilgrims flights from Imam Khomeini (airport) in Tehran on Saturday.” These flights would not fly as commercial but would operate specifically for hajj pilgrimage.
The flights have commenced as hajj is set to begin in the first week of June. The move comes after China mediated a revival in relations between both nations in March 2023 that were strained since 2016. The relations turned sour between both nations when the Saudi embassy in Tehran and its consulate in the northwestern city of Mashhad were attacked during protests that were in retaliation to the execution of Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr by Saudi Arabia.
Earlier, Iranians were only allowed to join hajj on Iran-chartered flights. The relations between both nations have been improving over the last few years. Both nations exchanged ambassadors and visits of foreign ministers before the late Ebrahim Raisi made the first visit by an Iranian president to the kingdom in 20 years for a joint Arab-Islamic summit on the Gaza war in November 2023. Saudi Defence Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman also visited Iran and met with supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei last month, marking a rare visit from a Saudi royal to Iran.
