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TEHRAN. Iran Iran suspended all umrah pilgrimages to Saudi Arabia on Monday amid growing diplomatic tensions between the two countries, state television reported.

Iran's Culture Ministry made the decision over alleged abuse suffered by two male Iranian pilgrims traveling through Saudi's Jeddah airport in March trying to return home, the station reported.

Culture Ministry spokesman Hossein Nooshabadi told state TV that the pilgrimage would be suspended until the Saudi government "applies a strong attitude" to the case. He also said "capital punishment" should apply to the case, without offering details about it.

The alleged abuse, the details of which have not been publicly disclosed, sparked unauthorized protests at the Saudi Embassy in Tehran on Saturday. Public anger has grown over the incident, with President Hassan Rouhani ordering an investigation and Iran's Foreign Ministry summoning a Saudi diplomat over it.

But what actually happened remains unclear. On Monday, a representative of Iran's top leader on hajj affairs downplayed the case, saying the pilgrims weren't abused, the semi-official Fars news agency reported.

"In the incident, no abuse has happened and the two policemen who attempted abuse were identified and detained by Saudi police," Ali Ghaziasgar was quoted as saying.

Some 500,000 Iranians visit Saudi Arabia each year for the umrah pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina, Islam's holiest sites.

Another 100,000 Iranian pilgrims annually travel to Saudi Arabia for the hajj -- Islam's main pilgrimage-- which comes after the holy month of Ramadan and is scheduled to take place in September this year. Hajj is a ritual required of every able-bodied Muslim at least once in a lifetime.

Saudi officials haven't commented publicly on the dispute. Earlier this month, aviation authorities in the kingdom turned away an Iranian plane carrying pilgrims, saying it did not have permission to use the country's airspace, the official Saudi Press Agency reported.

Tensions between Shiite power Iran and the Sunni kingdom of Saudi Arabia have escalated over Saudi-led airstrikes in Yemen targeting Shiite rebels known as Houthis. The U.S., Western countries and Sunni Arab nations involved in the Saudi-led coalition have accused Iran of supporting the Houthis militarily, something both the rebels and the Islamic Republic deny.

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Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif said during a visit to Kazakhstan his country was already a trustworthy gas partner for Asian economies and a westerly pivot may soon follow.

"Iran, on par with Russia, enjoys all the (needed) resources to provide gas to Europe," he said from Astana.

Iran is anticipating major sanctions relief if a framework nuclear agreement with international powers enters into force during the summer. Sanctions limit Iran's energy export potential and the lifting of sanctions could help Tehran capitalize on its European market ambitions.

The Islamic republic is pegging energy advancements on its oil and gas from the South Pars natural gas field. South Pars accounts for about 35 percent of the total volume of gas produced from Iran.

Sanctions targeting the Iranian energy sector have curtailed development of the South Pars natural gas field, Iran's oil minister said last year.

The European community, meanwhile, is looking for ways to diversify an energy sector that depends in large part on Russian natural gas. Europe gets about 20 percent of its gas needs met by Russia, though most of that runs through Soviet-era pipelines in war-torn Ukraine.

Iran in the past said its gas would be a necessary component of the now-shelved Nabucco gas pipeline slated for European markets. That pipeline would've carried natural gas from Azerbaijan. A rival BP-led project from offshore Azerbaijan, part of a network dubbed the Southern Corridor, is now on tap.

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Iran suspended pilgrimage visits to Saudi Arabia on Monday in the latest manifestation of escalating tensions between the two regional rivals.

The move comes after allegations that security personnel at the airport in Jeddah sexually molested a pair of Iranian teenage boys last month as the two pilgrims were headed home.

Ali Jannati, Irans minister for culture and Islamic guidance, told local media that flights for the minor hajj travel period had been suspended until further notice. The minor or off-season hajj encompasses the months not included in the official period of pilgrimage to Mecca, the Saudi home of Islams most revered shrines.

In his comments, the Iranian minister said Saudi officials had vowed to punish those responsible for the crime. Details of the alleged sexual attack have not been released. Saudi authorities have not commented publicly on the case.

But the reported assaults have caused outrage here. On Saturday, angry protesters gathered outside the Saudi Embassy in Tehran and demanded that the attackers be brought to justice.

Tensions are already running high between predominantly Shiite Iran and mostly Sunni Saudi Arabia, hubs of the two major branches of Islam. The two nations are backing opposing sides in sectarian-fueled proxy wars in Syria and Yemen, and are also at odds about events in Iraq, Bahrain, Lebanon and elsewhere.

The pilgrimage has occasionally emerged as a flash point of regional tensions. In 1987, clashes between Iranian Shiite pilgrims and Saudi security forces in Mecca left hundreds dead. Each side blamed the other for the bloody incident.

Approximately 500,000 Iranians visit Saudi Arabia annually during the minor hajj period, according to official estimates. An additional 100,000 pilgrims from Iran make the trip during the weeks of official pilgrimage, officials say.

Hajj-related travel is big business in much of the Muslim world. Special flights transport the pilgrims from Iran and elsewhere to Saudi Arabia.

Inside Iran, an extensive network of travel agencies, tour organizers and middlemen help make arrangements and secure visas for pilgrims. One Iranian travel agent who declined to be named for privacy reasons said pilgrims were being advised to fly to Kuwait or other nations to seek Saudi visas.

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