Ahmad Montazeri, Ayatollah Montazeri’s son, revealed in an interview that according to his father’s memoir, six IRCG members who smuggled explosives to Saudi Arabia in the 1980s were cooperating with Hashemi Rafsanjani, the influential cleric in the Islamic Republic who passed away in 2017.

The explosives were concealed in pilgrims’ luggage who were aboard to Hajj in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, Ahmad Montazeri adds. The explosives were found at the airport and Mehdi Karrubi, then representative of Ayatollah Khomeini in Hajj, had to apologize to Malek Fahd, the former Saudi king.

“Mehdi Hashemi did not carry the explosives, and Ali Shamkhani, the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, has more information in this respect, but he refuses to share” Ahmad Montazeri claims.

The Saudi security forces declared that they found explosives within Iranian luggage during Hajj pilgrimage in 1986.

It is believed that this incident paved the way for the clash during the following year’s pilgrimage in 1987 where 275 Iranian pilgrims, 85 Saudi police, and 45 other nationals were killed.

Ayatollah Montazeri, Ahmad’s father, who was the deputy leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran at the time, wrote a letter to the Supreme leader, the late Ayatollah Khomeini, and condemned Iranian officials’ conduct. He wrote: “Many trusted people who witnessed the demonstration [during the pilgrimage which lead to the clash] tell us that the Saudis shouldn’t be blamed for everything… The enemy [Saudis] reacted reasonably with regards to our nationals carrying explosives in their luggage last year, and they even overlooked our conduct, but we did not address the issue properly. On the contrary, we were inflated with pride and {therefore} such a big calamity happened to the Islamic world.”