TEHRAN (Dispatches) – Iran, Hezbollah and Qatar Saturday voiced support for Saudi Arabia over a terrorist bombing near Islam's holiest site in Mecca despite their severed ties.
"Iran... as always expresses its readiness to assist and cooperate with other countries to confront these criminals, who deal death and ignorantly spread hate," Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi said.
The Qatari foreign ministry expressed "solidarity with the brotherly kingdom of Saudi Arabia".
Six foreign pilgrims were wounded when a bomber blew himself up near the Grand Mosque in Mecca, where hundreds of thousands of worshippers had gathered for prayers on the last Friday of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.
The Saudi interior ministry said a wider plot had been foiled with the arrest of five suspects earlier in the day.
Since late 2014, the kingdom has faced periodic bombings and shootings claimed by the Daesh group.
Iran and Saudi Arabia have had no diplomatic relations since January last year. Saudi Arabia and its allies severed all ties with Qatar earlier this month accusing it of supporting "terrorist groups" in the region, a charge Doha denies.
Qassemi said the "foiled attempt” proved again that "the uncontrolled and growing terrorism currently gripping the whole world, the region and especially Muslim nations…, knows no religion, geography, ethnicity and nationality.”
Terrorism, Qassemi warned, could "even take aim at the most revered of Muslim sites to achieve its own ominous goals.”
Qassemi further cautioned regional governments and countries against "the hideous and sinister phenomenon” of terrorism, calling on all regional nations to be vigilant and make continued efforts to fight the scourge.”
"The Islamic Republic of Iran condemns terrorism anywhere, in any form and with any intention, and expresses its readiness to help other countries counter criminals, death merchants and ignorant promoters of hatred,” he added.
Meanwhile, the Lebanese resistance movement of Hezbollah denounced as a "sinful crime” the Mecca incident, saying it is part of a series of atrocities committed by terrorists across the Arab and Muslim world.
In a statement, Hezbollah’s Media Relations said the attempted attack proved once again that the Takfiris’ criminal ideology "pays no respect to a sacred place or a holy time.”
Images posted on social media showed an alley filled with bricks and other debris apparently from the Mecca explosion.
Before surrounding the bomber, Saudi police arrested five suspected militants, including a woman, in raids on Mecca and the port city of Jeddah.