Iran Appoints Senior Diplomat As New Envoy To Saudi Arabia

Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has appointed Alireza Enayati, a seasoned diplomat, as the country’s new ambassador to Saudi Arabia.

The appointment, announced by semi-official news agencies, comes two months after a Chinese-brokered agreement between Tehran and Riyadh which revived relations after a seven-year hiatus.

Enayati previously served as an assistant to Iran’s foreign minister and the director general of the Foreign Ministry’s Persian Gulf affairs. He has also served as Iran’s ambassador to Kuwait.

Reports claim he played a key role in Iran-Saudi negotiations which resulted in the normalization of relations.

While in March Iran and Saudi Arabia had agreed to reopen their embassies within two months, the procedure seems to be taking longer than expected, especially because of the repairs needed in both embassies after years of neglect.

Saudi Arabia severed relations with the Islamic Republic in January 2016 after pro-government Iranian mobs attacked and ransacked its embassy in Tehran and consulate in Mashhad following the execution of a Saudi Shiite cleric.

The most crucial bilateral tension was over Yemen, where Iran supports Houthi rebels against the remnants of the country’s legal government, backed by Saudi led forces.