Iran’s Hajj and Pilgrimage Organization has urged Saudi Arabia to increase the number of Iranians permitted to perform the Hajj pilgrimage next year, saying its current quota does not reflect the country’s population size.
In a meeting with Saudi Ambassador Abdullah bin Saud al-Anzi this week, Iran’s Hajj chief Alireza Rashidian said that last year Iran’s allocation was approximately 85,000 pilgrims.
He requested an increase in the quota for the next Hajj season in May 2026 to align more closely with Iran’s larger population of around 91 million.
He also raised operational issues including use of Ta’if airport and increased flight capacity via Saudi airlines.
Saudi Arabia allocates Hajj slots based on a formula set up in 1987, typically around one pilgrim per thousand Muslims in a country. For example, Indonesia has a quota of 221,000 pilgrims for 2025, Pakistan 180,000, India 175,000, and Iran now approximately 87,500.
On Thursday, the Supreme Leader’s representative for Hajj affairs, Abdolfattah Navvab, told Tasnim News that Iran hopes its Hajj quota will increase in proportion to the country’s growing population.
“Given the rise in Iran’s population, we hope the national quota will also increase so we can serve a larger number of pilgrims eager to visit Mecca,” he said.
Navvab added that last year’s quota was set at 85,000 pilgrims based on a population of 85 million, with an additional two percent allocated for staff and organizers.
He added that about 200,000 Iranians performed the Umrah pilgrimage last year -- a non-mandatory Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca that can be undertaken at any time of the year -- and that, while Iran faces no specific restrictions for Umrah, limited flight capacity remains the main challenge.
“Fortunately, Saudi airline Flynas resumed flights from Shiraz yesterday, and services from Khuzestan province will begin soon to allow more pilgrims to travel,” he said.
"Negotiation is a fundamental tool for securing national interests and security. There are two ways to achieve your aims: war or negotiation. And negotiation is, of course, the less costly option," Abbas Araghchi told students at a speech in Hamedan in Western Iran.
"That said, we should not be afraid of war or of fighting; if we are afraid, war will be imposed on us," he added. "The best way to deter war is to be prepared for it."
A 12-day conflict launched by Israel in June killed hundreds of Iranian military personnel and civilians and was capped off by US strikes on three nuclear sites. Iranian counterattacks killed 32 Israeli civilians and an off-duty soldier.
Still, the impasse over Iran's disputed nuclear program persists. Tehran denies seeking a bomb but Western powers and Israel doubt its intentions.
European countries and the United States have called for renewed talks between Washington and Tehran, but Iran says it will not renounce domestic uranium enrichment or discuss its missile program and its support for regional armed groups.
Iran, Aragchi added, had “tested negotiations with the United States in different circumstances and never achieved positive results.”
Referring to a 2015 nuclear deal, he said, “America unilaterally withdrew and reinstated sanctions.”
Araghchi said Iran’s foreign policy rests on independence from both East and West. “We do not trust any country,” he said. “However, we have strategic partnerships with some, including China and Russia, and continue our cooperation within that framework.”
Turning to nuclear policy, he reaffirmed Iran’s continued adherence to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, citing a religious decree prohibiting nuclear weapons.
Under the Criminal Code Amendment (State Sponsors of Terrorism) Act 2025, the government may now designate a foreign state entity that “has engaged in, or otherwise supported or advocated for, the doing of terrorist acts targeted at Australia.”
The Criminal Code will also be expanded with new offences aimed at state sponsors of terrorism, their proxies and external supporters.
Attorney-General Michelle Rowland said the legislation reflects Australia’s uncompromising stance on threats to its national security.
“Our first priority is the safety and protection of all Australians, which is why we have acted decisively in passing this vital legislation through the Parliament,” she said.
She added that the law “is a warning that foreign states and their supporters who seek to fuel division, create fear, erode social cohesion and perpetrate violence in the Australian community will be held to account.”
The legislation follows a hot-line press conference in August where Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, flanked by Australia’s domestic spy chief, publicly said the IRGC orchestrated two arson attacks on a kosher restaurant in Sydney and a synagogue in Melbourne in 2024.
Australian domestic spy agency Australian Security Intelligence Organization (ASIO) assessed that the IRGC used a “complex web of proxies” to carry out attacks on Australian soil.
Rowland said the new law would create an environment where “it is more difficult, more risky, and more costly for malicious foreign actors to seek to cause Australia and our community harm.”
She added that law enforcement and intelligence agencies would be given enhanced powers to investigate and disrupt state-sponsored terrorism.
While the IRGC has been designated a terrorist organization by the United States since 2019, Australia’s new law marks the first time Canberra has enabled the listing of a foreign state entity under its federal terrorism framework.
Parliamentary sources said the government’s intelligence case was bolstered by “credible intelligence” linking the IRGC to extremist actions in Australia.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong described the law as part of broader efforts to protect democratic institutions from overseas interference.
“Foreign state-sponsored extremism does not stop at our border,” she said, adding that the legislation would help safeguard Australia’s “social cohesion and national resilience.”
Tehran dismissed the Sydney and Melbourne attacks allegations as “fabricated aims to undermine Iran.”
Australia’s Parliament passed the bill through the Senate without amendment. Legal analysts said the framework enables Canberra to impose economic and operational restrictions on listed entities and prosecute those who provide material support. The law also allows asset freezes and bans on directors or associates of designated state-sponsor entities.
The arrest took place in the suburb of Risskov in cooperation with Denmark’s intelligence service PET and East Jutland Police. The man was detained under a German arrest warrant, and German officers were present during the operation, police said.
German prosecutors said the man is suspected of acting as a contact in a network tied to an Iranian intelligence operation. He allegedly tried to help obtain a weapon for another man who was arrested in June and accused of gathering information on Jewish sites in Berlin.
That earlier suspect, identified by German media as 53-year-old Ali S., a dual Afghan-Danish national, had secretly traveled to Iran after collecting surveillance material on Jewish institutions, according to German newspaper Bild. The report said he met a Quds Force officer in Tehran and handed over photos, videos, and details about possible targets, including Jewish community offices and restaurants.
Ali S. was arrested in Denmark in June and later extradited to Germany, where he faces charges of espionage and planning attacks for Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.
The newly arrested man, also of Afghan origin, is charged with attempted murder in Germany and will appear before a Danish court in Aarhus later on Wednesday for a custody hearing pending a decision on extradition, police said.
PET said the case reflects a broader pattern of Iranian intelligence activity in Europe, including efforts targeting Israeli and Jewish interests. PET chief Finn Borch Andersen said state-backed actors such as Iran pose an increasing threat. “We take this very seriously, especially given the use of intermediaries and criminal networks to plan violent acts,” he said.
