MUNICH (Dispatches) --
Saudi Arabia is looking to schedule a fifth round of direct talks with Iran despite a “lack of substantive progress” in previous rounds, the kingdom’s foreign minister has said at the Munich Security Conference.
Saudi Arabia severed ties with Iran in 2016 angry protesters attacked its embassy in Tehran following the execution of a senior Shia religious leader by Riyadh. The two regional powers launched talks last year hosted by Iraq.
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud said on Saturday that if the 2015 nuclear pact was revived that should be “a starting point, not an endpoint” in order to address regional issues.
“If we see substantive progress on those files, then yes, rapprochement is possible. So far, we have not seen that,” he told the Munich Security Conference.
Tehran and Riyadh have held four rounds of talks in Iraq. Saudi Arabia has described the talks as cordial but exploratory, while Tehran says they had gone a “good distance”.
Earlier this month Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said Iran was ready for more talks with Saudi Arabia if Riyadh was willing to hold the talks in an atmosphere of mutual understanding and respect.
“Iran is ready to continue these negotiations until reaching an outcome, provided that the Saudis are willing to continue the negotiations in an atmosphere of mutual understanding and respect,” Raisi as saying in a phone call with Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi.
Riyadh and Tehran have said they hope the talks can ease tensions while playing down expectations of a significant diplomatic breakthrough.
The talks have led to “serious progress” regarding Persian Gulf security, Tehran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Saeed Khatibzadeh said in September.
In a sign of a thaw in relations, Iran said last month that three Iranian diplomats arrived in Saudi Arabia to take up posts at the headquarters of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Jeddah.