Iranian Delegation Due in Saudi Arabia This Week

Date: 09 April 2023 - 22:39

News ID: ۱۱۳۸۶۶

TEHRAN -- An Iranian technical delegation will visit Saudi Arabia this week to prepare for the reopening of Iran’s embassy in Riyadh, officials here said on Sunday.
Deputy Foreign Minister Alireza Enayati said two separate delegations will head to Riyadh and Jeddah.
The announcement comes days after the foreign ministers of Iran and Saudi Arabia met in Beijing on Thursday for the first formal gathering of their top diplomats in more than seven years, after China brokered a deal to restore relations between the top regional powers.
“The Iranian technical delegation will visit Tehran’s embassy in Riyadh and make arrangements for the reopening of Iran’s embassy in Saudi Arabia,” ISNA reported.
The Saudi foreign ministry had said on Saturday that officials had visited Iran to discuss procedures for reopening Riyadh’s diplomatic missions in the Islamic Republic.
“The Saudi delegation visited the Saudi embassy in Tehran this morning,” ISNA added.
A Saudi delegation arrived in Tehran Saturday to discuss reopening the kingdom’s diplomatic missions in the Islamic Republic.
The Saudi diplomatic delegation arrived in Iran to discuss the reopening of its missions after a seven-year absence, Riyadh’s foreign ministry said.
Cited by the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA), the ministry called the visit part of “implementing the tripartite agreement” reached on March 10 between the two regional powers, brokered by China, to restore ties ruptured in 2016.
The two countries have now pledged to work together.
When Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan and his Iranian counterpart Hussein Amir-Abdollahian met in Beijing on Thursday they vowed to bring security and stability to the turbulent Persian Gulf region.
“The two sides emphasized the

importance of following up on the implementation of the Beijing Agreement and its activation in a way that expands mutual trust and the fields of cooperation and helps create security, stability and prosperity in the region,” a joint statement said.

On Saturday, a Saudi “technical delegation” met Iran’s chief of protocol, Mehdi Honardoust, at the foreign ministry in Tehran, SPA said.

The two countries severed ties after protesters in the Islamic Republic held angry rallies outside Saudi diplomatic missions following Riyadh’s execution of a prominent Shia cleric.

The shock rapprochement between mainly Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil exporter, and Iran has the potential to reshape relations across a region characterized by turbulence for decades.

Under last month’s agreement, the two countries are to reopen their embassies and missions within two months and implement security and economic cooperation deals signed more than 20 years ago.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has also been invited by Saudi King Salman to Riyadh, a trip planned to take place after the holy fasting month of Ramadan which ends later in April.

Rabha Saif Allam, specialist in Middle Eastern affairs at the Cairo Center for Strategic Studies, noted “an acceleration” in the normalization of ties.

She said this means an intensification of meetings “at the economic and security levels”, and believes normalization will be sealed by Raisi’s planned visit to Riyadh at the end of April.

The United States has for decades been the destabilizing factor in the Middle East and has an alliance, albeit a frequently strained one, with Saudi Arabia.

In a separate development on Saturday, Omani mediators arrived in the Yemeni capital Sanaa to discuss a new truce between Ansarullah and Saudi Arabia, an airport source said.

Diplomatic efforts to resolve the conflict have multiplied since the Chinese-brokered Saudi-Iran deal to restore relations.