The delegation’s visit comes two days after Iran’s and Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministers met in Beijing. The two countries severed diplomatic ties seven years ago.
Saudi officials arrived in Tehran on Saturday to discuss reopening embassies and consulates.
The delegation’s visit came two days after Iran’s and Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministers met in Beijing.
In March, the two traditional rivals announced plans to resume diplomatic ties that had been broken for seven years. The delegation will discuss the reopening of the Saudi Embassy in Tehran and the consulate in the northeastern city of Mashhad.
The Kingdom’s state news agency, Saudi Press Agency (SPA), quoted Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan as saying the visit was part of a broader effort to “implement the trilateral agreement”. He referred to a China-brokered recovery agreement. relationship.
The SPA said Saudi “technical delegation” met Mehdi Honardoust, the head of Iran’s protocol at the foreign ministry in Tehran.
Why did Saudi Arabia and Iran sever diplomatic ties?
Ties between the two countries were severed after Iranian protesters attacked a Saudi diplomatic mission. Demonstrators demonstrated against the execution in Riyadh of a prominent Shia Muslim cleric.
Shia-majority Iran and Sunni-majority Saudi Arabia are traditional geopolitical rivals in the Middle East and have backed the other side in civil wars in Syria and Yemen.
Also on Saturday, Omani mediators arrived in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa to discuss a possible ceasefire between the Iran-backed Houthi rebels and Saudi Arabia, which backs the internationally recognized Yemeni government.
Agence France-Presse (AFP) quoted Rabba Saif Alam, an expert on Middle East issues at the Cairo Center for Strategic Studies, as saying meetings between Iran and Iran at “economic and security levels” had “accelerated”. Told. Saudi Arabia.
She said she believed the two countries would eventually normalize ties during Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi’s scheduled visit to Riyadh later this month.
