Saudi Arabia and Iran have agreed to follow up on arrangements to reopen their diplomatic missions to Tehran and Riyadh respectively, to encourage visits of official and private delegations and to facilitate visas for Iranian and Saudi citizens. They also agreed to discuss resuming flights between them.
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud and his Iranian counterpart, Hossein Amirabdollahian, shook hands in the Chinese capital, Beijing, on Thursday in the first formal meeting of the two senior officials after a years-long rift between Tehran and Riyadh that fuelled instability in the region.
“The technical teams will continue coordination to examine the ways of expanding cooperation including the resumption of flights and bilateral visits of official and private sector delegations and facilitating the granting of visas for the citizens of the two countries,” read a joint statement.
The statement comes after the two agreed in March to restore ties in a landmark agreement brokered by China – a move that experts say demonstrated Beijing’s increasingly influential role in the region in contrast to the diminishing role of the United States.
“The countries … were mostly focused on rivalry and tensions, but now they are talking about focusing on common ground… stressing cooperation,” Abas Aslani, senior fellow at the Center for Middle East Strategic Studies, told Al Jazeera.
“But on the bilateral level, to what extent they can go ahead depends on how Saudis act because Iran has been under economic sanctions by the West, that’s why we have to see how they will proceed,” he added, referring to sanctions placed on Iran over its nuclear programme.
Saudi Arabia and Iran broke formal ties in 2016 after Iranian protesters attacked Saudi diplomatic missions in response to the kingdom’s execution of Shia Muslim leader Nimr al-Nimr – one in a series of flashpoints between the two longstanding regional rivals.
The kingdom then asked Iranian diplomats to leave within 48 hours while it evacuated its embassy staff from Tehran.
The relationship between the two, which had hit rocky patches on and off for more than 40 years, worsened notably as the regional rivals staked opposing positions on conflicts like the war in Syria and the Saudi intervention in the war in Yemen, where the Iran-aligned Houthi movement overthrew a Saudi-backed government and took over the capital, Sanaa.
For Saudi Arabia, the rapprochement could mean improved security. The kingdom has blamed Iran for arming the Houthis, who launched missile and drone attacks on Saudi Arabian cities and oil facilities.
In 2019, Riyadh blamed an attack on Aramco oil facilities, which knocked out half of its oil output, directly on Iran, which denied those accusations.
The meeting between the two countries comes amid major shifts in the power dynamic of the region.
“They [seem] determined … to expand their cooperation, I think mostly on regional issues and cases including Yemen, Syria, Iraq and Lebanon,” Aslani said.
After the Saudi-Iran rapprochement, Saudi state television reported that Riyadh was discussing the possible resumption of consular services between it and Damascus.
If confirmed, the re-establishment of ties between the kingdom and Syria would mark the most significant step yet in the Arab world to restore ties with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Al-Assad was shunned by many Western and Arab states after his security forces’ use of violence on protesters unleashed a civil war in 2011.
Saudi Arabia is also working on re-engaging with Turkey after years of tension exacerbated by the brutal killing by Saudi agents in Istanbul of Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi dissident and Washington Post columnist.
Meanwhile, Iran appointed on Wednesday a new ambassador to the United Arab Emirates. While the two countries had broken ties in 2016, they recently began re-engaging, with the UAE appointing an ambassador to Tehran last year.
The two countries’ top diplomats agree to open embassies, resume officials visits and facilitate visas for citizens.
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