Saudi Arabia to Continue Talks with Iran

Riyadh, MINA – Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan al-Saud on Saturday said his country would continue talks with Iran and additional rounds of negotiations are expected soon.

Prince Faisal told FRANCE 24 the previous four rounds of talks are “exploratory” rather than substantial, but both sides committed to getting involved, Anadolu Agency reported.

But he expressed reservations about Iran’s nuclear negotiations set to resume in the next few weeks, citing Tehran’s past about its nuclear activities.

Foreign Minister Faisal also denied reports that Saudi Arabia had withdrawn troops from Yemen. The situation is currently deadlocked militarily and diplomatically, he said, regretting that the Houthis did not agree to a Saudi proposal for a ceasefire earlier this year.

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Diplomatic efforts to break the ice between Iran and Saudi Arabia have intensified in recent months. Officials from both sides said there was progress in the Iraqi-brokered talks.

Four rounds of talks have been held in Baghdad since April to ease tensions that were first sparked in January 2016 following attacks on two Saudi diplomatic missions in Tehran and Mashhad that were sparked by the execution of a prominent Shia cleric in Saudi Arabia.

There have been rumors of the two sides agreeing to reopen the consulate as a first step towards restoring diplomatic ties, despite many unresolved controversial issues between the two countries, particularly Yemen.

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Meanwhile, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian admitted during a visit to Lebanon last week that talks with Saudi Arabia had gone a long way and he hoped to see an end to tensions in the region. (T/RE1)

Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)