DAMASCUS (Xinhua/Middle East Eye) – Syrians’ Hajj pilgrimage to the Islamic holy cities of Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia will be resumed in 2024 after 12 years of suspension, Syria’s head of Hajj affairs said Wednesday.
There will be no Hajj pilgrimage for Syrians this year as the relations between Syria and Saudi Arabia have just been restored and the Hajj arrangements need time and coordination, the al-Watan newspaper quoted Hassan Nasrallah as saying.
The Muslim Hajj pilgrimage in 2023 will be observed between July 18 and 23.
In the years when the Syrian-Saudi relations were severed, Syrian pilgrims who wanted to perform Hajj needed to obtain visas from neighboring countries.
Syria and Saudi Arabia agreed to resume consular services in April and restored full diplomatic relations this month.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad attended the Arab Summit held in Saudi Arabia last week for the first time in 12 years, marking the return of Syria to the Arab fold after long years of isolation.
In other developments related to Hajj, British Muslims can no longer book a place on this year’s pilgrimage after the limited number of spaces given to UK pilgrims ran out.
Nusuk, a new portal designed by Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Hajj and Umrah to handle Hajj packages for western pilgrims, confirmed on Tuesday that all the slots for UK Muslims had been filled.
“We would like to confirm that our current packages for UK are indeed sold out and the full capacity is reached,” Nusuk said on Twitter.
“However, we recommend periodically checking the availability as new packages may be released.