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Iran says its

pilgrims hold rally

at haj

NICOSIA: Iran said its pilgrims held a political rally denouncing the United States and Israel during the climax of the annual pilgrimage on Saturday at Mount Arafat, defying a Saudi Arabian ban on political activity during haj.

The official Iranian news agency IRNA said "Iranian and other Moslem pilgrims" took part at Mount Arafat in the "disavowal from pagans ceremony", a term Iran uses to describe tis political rallies at the haj.

There was no immediate confirmation of the report.

Saudi Arabia had repeatedly said it would deal harshly with any pilgrims who defy a ban on bringing political leaflets or books into the country or demonstrating during the haj.

Saudi state-television has been broadcasting live footage from Mount Arafat, where up to two million Moslems gathered to spend the day in prayer at the climax of haj.

The television said haj was proceeding peacefully and the footage it showed did not indicate any disorder.

Iran on Wednesday postponed a rally due to be held in the holy city of Mecca against the United States and Israel to avoid confrontation with Saudi forces it said were deployed in front of its haj offices.

It was the third year that Iran cancelled the rallies, only to hold low-key demonstrations at Mena or Mount Arafat a few days later.

Iranian state media said on Thursday pilgrims chanted slogans against Israel and the United States at the Grand Mosque in mecca on Wednesday in protest at Israel's attacks on Lebanon.

There was no independent confirmation of the report.

Iran's leaders consider politics an integral part of haj, but Saudi Arabia says the pilgrimage is strictly spiritual.

The row between the Gulf's two richest oil countries has resurfaced before every haj since 1987, when 402 people, mostly Iranians, died in clashes. Iran boycotted haj for three years.-Reuter