The Government of Iran announced today that the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohamed Bin Salman, accepted an invitation to visit Tehran, in a significant step forward for the rapprochement registered in recent months between the two great regional rivals.
Bin Salman’s visit, which does not yet have a set date, was agreed after the trip of the Iranian Foreign Minister, Hossein Amir Abdollahian, to Saudi Arabia, the Iranian news agency Tasnim reported today and the Europa Press news agency replied.
Two days ago, Amir Abdollahian made his first official trip to Riyadh after the diplomatic rapprochement between these two Middle Eastern countries, whose relations had been suspended since 2016.
Iran acts in favor of “the unity of the Muslim world”, the foreign minister said last Thursday, adding that bilateral relations were going “in the right direction”, during a press conference together with his Saudi counterpart, Prince Faisal. Biin Farhan Al Saud.
Iran had already extended the invitation to Saudi monarch Salman bin Salman, but the king hardly appears in public and, at 87, has completely delegated government tasks to his son, the country’s prime minister for a year.
Iran, with a majority Shiite confession population, and Saudi Arabia, essentially Sunni, have maintained tense relations in recent decades and have supported warring actors in regional conflicts, such as in Yemen.
The Islamic Republic and the Gulf monarchy severed relations in 2016 after Iranian protesters attacked Saudi diplomatic missions against the execution of an influential Shiite cleric in Saudi Arabia.
But the ties were loosened after an agreement reached on March 10, which put an end to seven years of diplomatic rupture, and which had Iraq and China as intermediaries.
The rapprochement materialized in early June, when Iran reopened its diplomatic mission in Riyadh.
Days later, the head of Saudi diplomacy paid an official visit to Iran, the first time for a Saudi foreign minister in 17 years.
The thaw between Iran and Saudi Arabia was also key in Syria’s reincorporation into the Arab League, and raised hopes for a stabilization in the Middle East, especially in Yemen, a country devastated by a bloody war since 2015.
Source: Ambito
