Dhu Al-Hijjah, the 12th month in the Islamic calendar, begins on Sunday (August 12), it was confirmed on Saturday night.
The sighting of the crescent moon means that the first day of the annual Hajj pilgrimage will be next Sunday, Aug. 19.
Among the pilgrims will be 1,000 relatives of Egyptian armed forces and police officers who gave their lives in the line of duty, it was announced on Saturday.
The pilgrims, both men and women, will be part of Saudi King Salman’s annual Hajj guest program.
“The Kingdom’s appreciation of families of killed Egyptian military and police members is a recognition of their role in confronting terrorism, and the Kingdom and Egypt are together in addressing evil and oppression,” said Egypt’s Endowments Minister, Mohammed Mukhtar Jumma.
The Hajj terminal at King Abdul Aziz International Airport in Jeddah is expected to welcome 310,000 pilgrims during this year’s Hajj season, aviation chiefs said on Saturday.Musaed bin Ibrahim Al-Saleem is Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to Australia. Hajj missions for this year were launched on Saturday from Australia and neighboring countries, in the presence of the Saudi envoy.
In a statement issued to the Saudi Press Agency (SPA), the ambassador said that the embassy’s department of consular affairs has completed the issuance of visas for pilgrims from Australia and neighboring countries to perform Hajj this year.
He stressed that the Kingdom, under the leadership of King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, spares no effort to serve the pilgrims.
Al-Saleem was born in Unaizah, Saudi Arabia in 1963. He obtained a bachelor’s degree in administrative sciences from King Saud University in Riyadh in 1985. Later, he went to the UK for further studies and received a master’s degree in international and diplomatic studies from the University of London in 2003.
Al-Saleem also completed several specialized courses in political science, diplomacy and economics within the Kingdom and from abroad.
He is a member of several specialized associations, and has attended special conferences and the meetings of the Gulf Cooperation Council, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the UN as part of the Kingdom’s official delegation.
Prior to his appointment as Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to Australia, Al-Saleem also served as an attache of the Foreign Affairs Ministry in Riyadh from 1987-1989, third secretary at the Saudi Embassy in Japan from 1989-1994, second secretary of the foreign aid department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 1994-1999, head of economic affairs at the Embassy of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in the UK from 1999-2004, and the ambassador to the Republic of Azerbaijan in 2013.
SOURCE : ARABNEWS
