(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - The Russian government's commission for religious organizations said Muslim pilgrims who are traveling to Saudi Arabia to see the holy Muslim shrines must fly to the place excluding land travel through Syria and Iraq this year.
"Muslim pilgrims must only fly to Saudi Arabia, excluding land travel across Syria and Iraq," Chairman, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Zhukov told the commission on Tuesday.
"Land transit must be avoided because our people's security cannot be guaranteed in Syria or Iraq, where the situation remains tense," he said.
Planes bound for Saudi Arabia will depart from Makhachkala and Grozny.
Other speakers said that 20,500 Russian pilgrims have visited Saudi Arabia over the past few years and the same number plan to travel there this year, and about half of them used their own means of transportation to reach the place.
Talks are to be held with Saudi Arabia to increase the Russian pilgrims' quota to 25,000.
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4 October 2011 - 20:30
News ID: 269772
The Russian government's commission for religious organizations said Muslim pilgrims who are traveling to Saudi Arabia to see the holy Muslim shrines must fly to the place excluding land travel through Syria and Iraq this year.
