Iranian pilgrims are welcome: Kingdom

RIYADH — Iranian pilgrims are still welcome to visit Makkah and Madina for pilgrimage despite increased tensions between the two countries, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir said on Thursday. "Any Muslim is welcome in Makkah and Madinah… and this includes the Iranian pilgrims," Al-Jubeir told reporters. He said the political crisis between the Kingdom and its regional rival "has nothing to do at all" with the annual Haj pilgrimage or the lesser pilgrimage known as Umrah. The rites draw millions of faithful from around the world each year. At a joint news conference Thursday with visiting German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Al-Jubeir repeated accusations that Iran's "hostile policies" in the region for more than three decades led to the current situation. The two countries support opposite sides in the wars in Syria and Yemen. Iran has also consolidated its influence in Iraq and Lebanon. Syria regime 'escalations' led to talks pause — German FM Military escalations by the Syrian regime led to the suspension of UN-brokered peace talks in Geneva this week but there is still a "glimpse of hope," Steinmeier said. After meeting Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman, he told reporters that talks broke down "because of the military escalations by the regime". "The fighting has seen an escalation and regime forces bear the responsibility for that," Steinmeier said at the press conference with Al-Jubeir. De Mistura on Wednesday said talks — the latest UN initiative to end the war in Syria — would now resume on Feb. 25. His comments came after several days of fruitless meetings aimed at starting indirect negotiations between the Syrian government and opposition. "This is a very difficult situation," Steinmeier said, according to an English translation of his remarks. "But there is still a glimpse of hope." Jubeir told reporters that the Syrian delegation "was not serious" about peace negotiations and that Russia had intensified its military operations in support of President Bashar Al-Assad. Billions pledged In London, donor nations pledged on Thursday to give billions of dollars in aid to Syrians as world leaders gathered for a conference to tackle the world's worst humanitarian crisis, with Turkey reporting a new exodus of tens of thousands fleeing airstrikes. With Syria's five-year-old civil war raging and another attempt at peace negotiations called off in Geneva after just a few days, the London conference aims to address the needs of some 6 million people displaced within Syria and more than 4 million refugees in other countries. Underlining the desperate situation on the ground in Syria, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told the meeting that tens of thousands of Syrians were on the move toward his country to escape aerial bombardments on the city of Aleppo.