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Middle East
Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian (left) attending the "Baghdad Conference for Cooperation and Partnership" in Jordan on December 20, 2022. Photo: AFP PHOTO / JORDANIAN ROYAL PALACE / YOUSEF ALLAN
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Saudi Arabia has expressed readiness to continue dialogue with Tehran, Iran’s foreign minister said on Wednesday after meeting his Saudi counterpart a day earlier in Jordan.
“I attended the second Baghdad conference in Jordan to ensure our support for Iraq, and on the sidelines of the meeting, I had the opportunity to meet with some of my counterparts, including the foreign ministers of Oman, Qatar, Iraq, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia,” Hossein Amir Abdollahian said in a tweet on Wednesday morning.
Abdollahian added that during his meeting with his Saudi counterpart, “the Saudi minister assured me of his country's readiness to continue dialogue with Iran.”
The Sunni kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Shiite-majority Iran have had rocky relations since 1979, when Shiite revolutionaries came to power in Iran and pledged to export their revolution to the world, including Gulf countries.
The two opposing countries relations have further worsened in 2016 when Iranian protestors attacked Saudi diplomatic missions in retaliation to the Sunni kingdom's execution of Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr.
Both nations have also supported opposing forces in several conflict zones across the region, most notably in Yemen, where Iran backs the Houthi rebels while Saudi Arabia leads a military coalition supporting the government.
The two rivals held the first round of reconciliation talks in April of last year in Baghdad. The Iraqi capital has since hosted several rounds of negotiations between the two, where Iraq has played the role of a mediator.
“I attended the second Baghdad conference in Jordan to ensure our support for Iraq, and on the sidelines of the meeting, I had the opportunity to meet with some of my counterparts, including the foreign ministers of Oman, Qatar, Iraq, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia,” Hossein Amir Abdollahian said in a tweet on Wednesday morning.
Abdollahian added that during his meeting with his Saudi counterpart, “the Saudi minister assured me of his country's readiness to continue dialogue with Iran.”
The Sunni kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Shiite-majority Iran have had rocky relations since 1979, when Shiite revolutionaries came to power in Iran and pledged to export their revolution to the world, including Gulf countries.
The two opposing countries relations have further worsened in 2016 when Iranian protestors attacked Saudi diplomatic missions in retaliation to the Sunni kingdom's execution of Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr.
Both nations have also supported opposing forces in several conflict zones across the region, most notably in Yemen, where Iran backs the Houthi rebels while Saudi Arabia leads a military coalition supporting the government.
The two rivals held the first round of reconciliation talks in April of last year in Baghdad. The Iraqi capital has since hosted several rounds of negotiations between the two, where Iraq has played the role of a mediator.
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