Tehran can “return to normal relations when the Saudi side is ready for it”
The Iranian authorities are ready to normalize relations with Saudi Arabia when they consider that Riyadh is ready for this. This was stated on Monday by Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahiyan, speaking at a forum in Tehran.
“Negotiations with Saudi Arabia will continue on the same path, we are ready to follow the path of official diplomacy, reopen the embassies of the two countries and return to normal relations when the Saudi side is ready for this,” the minister said, answering a question about the possibility of meeting with his Saudi counterpart Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud on the sidelines of the second Baghdad The conference on cooperation and partnership, which is scheduled for December 20 in Amman. “We have always welcomed cooperation and interaction with the countries of the region and the Persian Gulf,” the chief of Iranian diplomacy assured.
According to Abdollahiyan, the Amman conference “can create a space for overcoming challenges in the region,” an important message of this meeting “should be an emphasis on regional cooperation without foreign interference.”
On Saturday, the IRNA news agency reported that a meeting of the President of the Islamic Republic Ebrahim Raisi with the Crown Prince, Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud may take place on the sidelines of the forum in Amman. However, on Monday, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani Chafi announced that Abdollahiyan would go to the conference. According to IRNA, the program of the meeting of the Iranian and Saudi sides on the sidelines of the conference has not yet been determined.
Relations between Riyadh and Tehran worsened in March 2015 with the start of the military operation of the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen against the Ansar Allah movement (Houthis). The situation worsened on January 2, 2016 after the execution of a Shiite preacher in Saudi Arabia. During 2021, the parties negotiated on the possibility of normalizing relations, within the framework of which four meetings were held in Baghdad. On April 23 of this year, it was reported that the fifth round of negotiations was held in the Iraqi capital.
A source https://tass.ru/mezhdunarodnaya-panorama/16630055
