Iran’s Raisi invited to visit Saudi Arabia after detente

TEHRAN, Iran

Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz has welcomed the Tehran-Riyadh detente and called for economic and regional cooperation between the two countries, the Iranian president’s top aide said Sunday.

In a post on Twitter, Mohammad Jamshidi, the deputy chief of staff for political affairs in the Iranian president’s office, said the Saudi king in a letter to President Ebrahim Raisi invited him to visit the Arab country.

King Salman “called for strong economic and regional cooperation” between the two countries that severed ties in January 2016, he added.

Raisi, for his part, “welcomed the invitation and stressed Iran’s readiness to expand cooperation”.

There has been no official comment on the letter from the Saudi government yet.

Iran and Saudi Arabia, two regional arch-foes, last week reached an agreement in Beijing to restore diplomatic ties and re-open embassies after two years of marathon talks in Iraq and Oman.

The final round of talks, brokered by China, that led to the breakthrough was spearheaded by top security officials of the two countries.

Earlier on Sunday, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said he will meet his Saudi counterpart soon, adding that three places have been proposed for holding the high-profile meeting.

The top Iranian diplomat said Tehran and Riyadh have so far agreed to have technical teams visit the diplomatic missions in order to re-open them as agreed by the two sides in the joint statement last week.

The diplomatic breakthrough between Tehran and Riyadh has set off a wave of tension-easing talks between Iran and its estranged Persian Gulf neighbors, including Saudi Arabia’s key ally, Bahrain.

Amir-Abdollahian on Sunday said Iran “welcomes restoration of relations” with all countries in the region, adding that ties with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Kuwait “have been upgraded to the ambassadorial level”, while talks are underway between Tehran and Manama.

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