President of the Syrian Opposition Coalition (SOC) Nasr al-Hariri on Thursday met with members of the Supreme Hajj Committee and the Hajj Oversight Committee and discussed with them the effects of the suspension of the current Hajj season and the conditions of the applicants for the current Hajj season. He also discussed preparations for the next season, the development of mechanisms of work, and evaluation of future work.
The meeting brought together SOC’s Secretary-General, Abdelbaset Abdullatif, Deputy Head of the Committee, Director of the Syrian Hajj Samer Bayrakdar, Head of the Oversight Committee Safwan Jandali, and members of the Hajj and Oversight Committees.
SOC’s President pointed out that “we were supposed to be part of the Hajj mission for this season, but that was not possible because of the global outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.” He expressed his support for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s decision to limit Hajj to residents only, describing this decision as “wise”.
He added that the Hajj pilgrimage is a “sacred service that the SOC is honored to provide in cooperation with our brothers in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. We are open to Syrians with all orientations with regard to this issue. We were able to offer a successful model and an alternative to the Assad regime as we achieved big successes that were acclaimed by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s Hajj officials for the past several years.”
Al-Hariri urged the staff of the Supreme Hajj Committee to prepare for the organization of the affairs of the Syrian Hajj for the next season while ensuring the rights of the already applied Syrians who were unable to perform Hajj due to the coronavirus emergency and to give them priority in the next season.
For his part, Director of the Syrian Hajj, Samer Bayrakdar, said that the Supreme Hajj Committee “understands the decisions the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia made for this season.” He said that these decisions correspond with the concept of preserving religion and lives and comes within the context of the precautionary measures taken by the Kingdom to preserve the safety of pilgrims.
Bayrakdar reaffirmed the Committee’s readiness for the next season, adding: “We have already started developing executive plans to manage the Hajj file for the next season in the hope that things will go well. We are working to organize the annual Committee’s meeting to evaluate its work and develop strategic plans for the management of the next season.”
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has suspended the arrival of pilgrims for the Hajj season 2020 (1441 Hijri) and limited the ritual to residents in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia of various nationalities and in limited numbers due to the global outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic. (Source: SOC’s Media Department)
