April06,2023: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 regional powers 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 two sides emphasised the importance of following up on the implementation of the Beijing Agreement and its activation in a way that expands mutual trust and the fields of cooperation and helps create security, stability and prosperity in the region,” said the statement.
Abas Aslani, senior fellow at the Center for Middle East Strategic Studies, told Al Jazeera that Iran and Saudi Arabia were previously “mostly focused on rivalry and tensions, but now they are talking about focusing on common ground … stressing cooperation.”
“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.
