Iran's Foreign Minister Visits Saudi Arabia Thursday

Iran Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian departed from Tehran on a visit to Saudi Arabia on Thursday, Iranian state media reported.

In June, Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan met with Iranian officials in Tehran on his first visit to the country after the resumption of diplomatic ties with the Islamic Republic in March.

The two countries had no diplomatic relations for seven years from January 2016 when government-backed Iranian mobs attacked and ransacked Saudi missions after Riyadh executed a pro-Iran Shiite cleric. Saudi Arabia cut diplomatic ties after the incidents.

In March, Iran and Saudi Arabia agreed in a China-brokered deal to end the diplomatic rift and reestablish relations following years of hostility that had endangered regional stability in the Persian Gulf, as well as in Yemen, Syria and Lebanon.

The official government news agency IRNA reported that Iran’s first ambassador in more than seven years accompanies the foreign minister. Earlier this week Amir-Abdollahian announced that the Saudi ambassador will soon arrive in Tehran and the two embassies are already staffed.

The United States has been engaged in an effort to normalize ties between Saudi Arabia and Israel to expand the Abraham Accords launched under the Trump administration in 2020, when the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, close Saudi allies, established ties with Israel.