Egyptian Foreign Ministry
The ministry instructed the Egyptian embassy in Riyadh and the Consulate General in Jeddah to follow up with Saudi authorities on the incident, Assistant Foreign Minister for Consular Affairs Haddad El-Gohary said.
“The matter is being followed up with the Saudi authorities,” El-Gohary confirmed to the state news agency MENA on Tuesday.
The widely shared video shows a police officer roughly pulling up a woman sitting on the floor a few metres from the Kaaba and ordering her to leave. He then pushes a man dressed in Ihram out of the Grand Mosque.
The man asked the officer to avoid physical contact, saying, “I’m speaking to you with all due respect, and you should treat me the same way.”
The footage sparked online backlash over the past few hours.
Following the video’s circulation, Saudi Public Security said its Special Forces for Hajj and Umrah Security had arrested a person for “violating regulations in the Grand Mosque.”
Saudi authorities have not yet issued a detailed statement on the reasons behind the incident.
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