Iran invites Saudi Arabia’s King to visit country
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – Iran has invited Saudi Arabia’s King Salman bin Abdulaziz to visit the country, an Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Monday, marking a sign of rapidly improving ties between two regional rivals.
The invitation comes after the two governments agreed to re-establish diplomatic relations in a Chinese-brokered agreement in March, which ended seven years of estrangement.
On March 10, Iran and Saudi agreed to thaw relations and reopen their embassies in each other’s country ending their diplomatic rift.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani announced the invitation at a regular press conference on Monday. There was no immediate response from Riyadh. Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has already accepted an invitation to visit Saudi Arabia but no date has been set, according to The Wall Street Journal, an American newspaper.
Both Iran and Saudi Arabia have been divided for decades by longstanding security and sectarian tensions that have fueled their competition for regional dominance. The agreement to restore diplomatic relations addresses some of the most sensitive issues between the two, including Iranian support for Houthi rebels in Yemen.
Saudi Arabia cut off relations with Iran in 2016 after Iranian protesters attacked the Saudi embassy in response to Saudi Arabia executing Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr.
After their foreign ministers met in Beijing on April 6, Saudi Arabia and Iran agreed to restore flights between their countries and resume government and private-sector visits. An Iranian technical delegation arrived in Riyadh last week to reopen the Iranian embassy and consulate “in accordance with the recent agreement between the two countries,” Iran’s official IRNA news agency reported on April 12.
Saudi-Iranian relations have gone through ups and downs over the last 40 years. No Saudi monarch has visited Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution overthrew the regime of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi who was generally friendly with the Saudi royals. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the Shia cleric who led Iran’s revolution, called for Saudi Arabia and other pro-American monarchies in the Persian Gulf to be overthrown.