Saudi and Iran foreign ministers have pledged to meet before the end of Ramadan to execute a historic reconciliation agreement.
Saudi Prince Faisal bin Farhan and his Iranian colleague, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, spoke for the second time in less than a week. Discussing “a number of common issues in light of” the surprise agreement brokered by China announced on March 10. The official Saudi Press Agency reported.
“The two ministers also agreed to hold a bilateral meeting during the current month of Ramadan. ” Which concludes in the third week of April, according to SPA.
According to Iran’s foreign ministry, the two men “discussed the latest status of the two countries’ agreement. And “talked about a joint meeting of Iran and Saudi during the holy month of Ramadan.”
“They also discussed the two countries’ constructive path forward,” the Iranian statement said. Neither statement gave a precise date or location for the highly anticipated meeting. Which Saudi officials have said is the next step in resuming relations seven years after they were severed.
Riyadh severed ties after Iranian protesters assaulted Saudi foreign missions in 2016 in response to the Saudi execution of Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr. Just one of several flashpoints between the two long-standing regional rivals.
Saudi-Iran Agreement
The agreement calls for Shiite-majority Iran and Sunni Muslim Saudi Arabia to reopen embassies and missions within two months. And to execute security and economic cooperation agreements inked more than 20 years ago.
On March 19, an Iranian official said that Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi had gotten a favourable invitation to visit Saudi Arabia from King Salman, though Riyadh has yet to confirm this.
The same day, Amir-Abdollahian informed reporters that the two countries had agreed to meet their top diplomats. That three locations had been proposed, without specifying which.
The detente between Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest crude oil exporter. And Iran, strongly at odds with Western governments over its nuclear activities.
