IRAQ: IRANIAN PILGRIMS ALLOWED TO ATTEND AL ABBAS SHRINE

Описание: (21 Aug 1998) Natural Sound

The Iraqi government has allowed hundreds of Iranian pilgrims to attend the sacred Al-Abbas shrine in the south of the country.

They are the first such pilgrims to make the trip since the two countries declared war on each other 18 years ago.

For Iranians it was a chance pray for those killed during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war - for Iraq it was an opportunity to engage in a little 'pilgrimage tourism.'

It was a long journey for the Iranian pilgrims in more way than one.

Many crossed the Al-Muntheriya border point, 120 kilometres (72 miles) northeast of Baghdad early last Saturday morning.

But for some their journey was much longer - many have waited 18 years to pray at the holy shrine of Al-Abbas.

Hundreds of thousands of Iranians used to visit Iraq every year until 1980, when the two countries went to war.

At that point Iraq stopped issuing visas and even though the war ended in 1988, the restrictions were not lifted.

Relations have thawed somewhat since then.

In July, both countries agreed to allow 12-thousand Iranians a month to visit the holy cities of Karbala and Najaf in southern Iraq.

However, the pilgrims had to travel by road because U-N sanctions, imposed after Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait, has banned air travel to and from the country.

For its inaugural group of pilgrims, Iran gave preference to parents whose sons were killed during the Iran-Iraq war.

Shiites around the world aspire to bury their dead in its cemetery - which stretches for kilometres (miles).

It is the largest in the Muslim world.

Iraq, meanwhile, hopes the pilgrims - who traditionally deliver gifts to the shrines - will help reverse its desperate shortage of foreign currency.

Pilgrimage tourism - as it is known - is one of the few forms of international trade that Iraq is allowed to engage in under the sweeping U-N sanctions.

This concession may also work in Iran which - along with the holy sites in Najaf and Karbala - wants access to Shiite shrines in Samara in the north and in Baghdad.

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