West News Wire: According to Ebrahim Raisi’s deputy chief of staff, Saudi Arabia’s King Salman has invited Raisi to a meeting in Riyadh. A meeting between the foreign ministers of the two nations is also being planned in the wake of an agreement brokered by China that ended a seven-year diplomatic gap.
In a letter to Raisi, Salman extended the invitation, according to a tweet from the deputy chief of staff on Sunday. The president of Iran “welcomed this request and reaffirmed Iran’s readiness to enhance cooperation,” Jamshidi continued.
Jamshidi said King Salman alluded to Saudi Arabia and Iran as “brotherly countries” in his letter in a later English-language tweet.
Relations between the Sunni kingdom and the Shia republic broke down in 2016, after Iranian protesters stormed Saudi consulates following Riyadh’s execution of a Shia scholar. Since then, they have backed opposing sides in the civil wars in Yemen and Syria, while Iran backs the Hezbollah movement in Lebanon and Saudi Arabia sides with Israel against this group, which it considers a terrorist organization.
However, Saudi Arabia and Iran announced last week that they would restore diplomatic ties and commit to “non-interference” in each other’s internal affairs, in a landmark deal brokered by Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Since the Chinese-brokered agreement was announced, preparations have been underway to reopen embassies in Riyadh and Tehran, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian told Tehran’s state media on Sunday. Amirabdollahian said that he will meet with his Saudi counterpart, Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, in the near future, without providing further details.
Relations between the Sunni kingdom and the Shia republic broke down in 2016, after Iranian protesters stormed Saudi consulates following Riyadh’s execution of a Shia scholar. Since then, they have backed opposing sides in the civil wars in Yemen and Syria, while Iran backs the Hezbollah movement in Lebanon and Saudi Arabia sides with Israel against this group, which it considers a terrorist organization.
However, Saudi Arabia and Iran announced last week that they would restore diplomatic ties and commit to “non-interference” in each other’s internal affairs, in a landmark deal brokered by Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Since the Chinese-brokered agreement was announced, preparations have been underway to reopen embassies in Riyadh and Tehran, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian told Tehran’s state media on Sunday. Amirabdollahian said that he will meet with his Saudi counterpart, Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, in the near future, without providing further details.
