TEHRAN -- Saudi Arabia has agreed to grant visas to three Iranian diplomats to be based in the kingdom, the Iranian foreign minister said on Thursday.
The next round of Saudi-Iranian talks will take place soon in the Iraqi capital Baghdad, Hussein Amir-Abdollahian said at a joint news conference in Tehran with his Iraqi counterpart, Fuad Hussein.
“Last week, Saudi Arabia agreed to grant visas to three of our diplomats who will start work at the Organization of Islamic Conference in Jeddah,” Amir-Abdollahian said in comments carried by Iranian media.
Iran and Saudi Arabia, which severed diplomatic ties in 2016, started direct talks this year with four rounds held in Iraq.
The kingdom has described the talks as cordial but exploratory.
Riyadh’s gesture came after Iran implied that Saudi Arabia had blocked efforts to save the life of its ambassador to Yemen, who contracted coronavirus there but was unable to be repatriated immediately for urgent medical treatment.
The ambassador, Hassan Irloo, “was evacuated in poor condition due to delayed cooperation from certain countries”, the Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson, Saeed Khatibzadeh, told state media.
The spokesperson appeared to be referring to Saudi Arabia. Riyadh controls the airspace around the Yemeni capital, Sana’a and the ambassador was flown out on an Iraqi military aircraft after negotiations by the Oman government with Saudi Arabia.