The top Iranian and Saudi partners meet in China to examine diplomatic links

April 10, 2023: The foreign ministers of Iran and Saudi Arabia are meeting in Beijing on Thursday for the initial formal of their top diplomats in over seven years after China brokered a deal to restore ties amid the regional rivals.

Following years of hostility that fueled conflicts across the Middle East, Iran and Saudi Arabia agreed to end their diplomatic rift and reopen embassies in a significant deal facilitated by China in the previous month.

In brief, footage on Iranian state TV, Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud and his Iranian partner, Hossein Amirabdollahian, wished each other before sitting side by side.

The two countries stated in a joint statement they would launch arrangements to reopen consulates within the two months stipulated in the deal in the previous month.

“The technical teams keeping coordination to examine the ways of expanding cooperation, which include the resumption of flights and bilateral is visiting of official and private sector delegations and to facilitate the allowance of visas for the citizens of the two places,” they said.

In March, China’s President Xi Jinping is helping broker the surprise deal amid the rivals to end year rift and restore diplomatic ties – a display of China’s rising influence in the region.

Xi spoke with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud that month about several issues.

On Wednesday, Iranian Foreign Minister Amirabdollahian said his Saudi companion was “good and forward-looking,” according to Iranian state TV.

China’s role in the breakthrough has shaken dynamics in the Middle East, where the U.S. has been the primary mediator for decades.

Saudi Arabia slashed its connections with Iran in 2016 following its embassy in Tehran was stormed in a dispute between the two countries over Riyadh’s execution of a Shi’ite Muslim cleric.

The kingdom then asked Iranian diplomats to leave in 48 hours while vacating its embassy staff from Tehran.

The relationship worsened a year earlier after Saudi Arabia and the U.A.E came in between in the Yemen war.

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