Saudi, Iranian FMs Hold Phone Call After Football Incident

After a Saudi football team's refusal to play in Iran, Saudi Arabia's foreign minister has invited his Iranian counterpart to attend a game together in Saudi Arabia.

Media in Tehran reported on Friday that the two chief diplomats held a telephone call late on Thursday to discuss the incident in the Iranian city of Esfahan, when Saudi Arabia’s al-Ittihad football (soccer) team strongly objected to the presence of the former IRGC general Qassem Soleimani statue on the pitch and subsequently left Iran without playing the match.

Iranian government media also report that Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud and Hossein Amir-Abdollahian discussed future cooperation plans, “with appropriate political relations.” Bin Farhan called for continuing football matches, which he said were important to strengthen ties, and invited Amir-Abdollahian to Saudi Arabia to watch a match together.

The two foreign minister recently met in New York on the sidelines of the annual UN General Assembly.

Soleimani, who was Iran’s chief military and intelligence operative in the Middle East before being killed by a US drone strike in 2020, is seen by many regional countries as a figure who organized militant militias throughout the Middle East. These groups have been instruments of Iran’s influence and some are designated as terrorist that have fueled conflicts in the Levant, Iraq and in Yemen.

Iran re-established relations with Saudi Arabia in March after seven years of bitter adversarial relations. The Iranian Shiite clerical rulers have for many years used derogatory rhetoric and threatening language against the Saudi ruling family, who are seen as influential leaders among regional Arab Sunni countries.