Saudi Arabian officials arrived in Tehran on Saturday for talks on the reopening of embassies and consulates between the two nations. This comes two days after the foreign ministers of Iran and Saudi Arabia met for talks in Beijing. In March, the traditional rivals announced plans to re-establish diplomatic ties that were severed seven years ago.
The delegation’s visit is expected to focus on the reopening of the Saudi embassy in Tehran and the consulate in the north-eastern Iranian city of Mashhad. Prince Faisal bin Farhan, the Saudi foreign minister, stated that the visit was part of broader efforts to “implement the tripartite agreement” brokered by China for restoring ties.
A Saudi “technical delegation” reportedly met with Iran’s chief of protocol, Mehdi Honardoust, at the Foreign Ministry in Tehran, according to the Saudi Press Agency (SPA). The two countries severed ties after protesters in Iran attacked Saudi diplomatic missions. The protesters were demonstrating against the execution of a prominent Shiite Muslim cleric by Saudi Arabia.
Shiite-majority Iran and Sunni-majority Saudi Arabia have been traditional geopolitical rivals in the Middle East and have supported opposing sides in the civil war in Syria and Yemen. On the same day, Omani mediators arrived in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, to discuss a potential ceasefire between the Houthi rebels, who are supported by Iran, and Saudi Arabia, which backs Yemen’s internationally recognized government.
Rabha Saif Allam, a specialist in Middle Eastern affairs at the Cairo Center for Strategic Studies, noted that there had been an “acceleration” in meetings at the “economic and security levels” between Iran and Saudi Arabia. She stated that she believed that the two countries would definitively normalize their ties during Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi’s planned visit to Riyadh at the end of the month.
The talks between the two nations signal a potential thawing of tensions that have dominated the region for years. It remains to be seen whether the discussions will lead to a complete normalization of ties and whether the two nations can overcome their long-standing differences to establish diplomatic relations.
