This was announced at a meeting of planning and coordination between the Hajj and Pilgrimage Organization of Iran and the office of representative of the Leader of the Islamic Revolution in Hajj and Pilgrimage Affairs.
Gholam Reza Rezaei, the organization’s Hajj and Umrah affairs deputy, said at the meeting that it is predicted that 90,000 pilgrims will be dispatched to Saudi Arabia for Umrah in the first phase.
They will leave the country from 16 airports for the international airports in Medina and Jeddah, he noted.
Earlier this month, the organization announced the launch of registration for those wishing to go on the Umrah pilgrimage.
said the pilgrims will be sent to Saudi Arabia in two stages, with the first starting on September 18 and ending on December 20.
Back in April, the first batch of Umrah pilgrims from Iran embarked on the spiritual journey to Mecca after a 10-year hiatus.
Earlier, Head of the Hajj and Pilgrimage Organization Seyed Abbas Hosseini said 5.7 million Iranians are in line waiting for their turn to take part in Umrah pilgrimage, adding that the organization is ready to send between 800,000 and 1 million pilgrims to Saudi Arabia for Umrah every year if the conditions are right and other related bodies provide the necessary cooperation.
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Umrah differs from Hajj in that the latter is a lengthier visit which is done once a year and performed once in a lifetime by able-bodied Muslims who can afford it.
Iran stopped sending Umrah pilgrims to Saudi Arabia after two Iranian teenage boys were harassed in an airport in the Saudi city of Jeddah in March 2015.
That came nearly a year before the two countries cut their diplomatic relations.
Iran and Saudi Arabia re-established diplomatic ties in March 2023 through a China-mediated agreement, marking a significant development after severing relations in 2016.
Source: International Quran News Agency