- The Foreign Ministers of both sides agree to restore flights and facilitate the citizens of each others
- Iranian President’s visit to Saudi Arabia is also expected soon
Beijing: The Saudi Arabia and Iran agreed to resume flights and vowed to facilitate the citizens of each other for visas after their meeting in Beijing on Thursday.
Both the countries held their official meeting for the first time in seven years—and decided to re-establish diplomatic relations.
The developing is being weighed as much important as it impacted the influence of the west in the regional geopolitics as China brokered the deal between both Iran and Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal Bin Farhal Al Saud and Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian discussed a range of issue including reopening their missions, appointment of the diplomatic staff.
The planned visit of Iranian President also came under discussion in their meeting.
According to the reports, the top diplomats had been holding talks since March 10 after the governments of both the countries decided to end the seven years long hiatus and announced to reopen embassies within two months’ time.
The sources said that the meeting between the foreign ministers of both the countries continued for an hour. The Saudi state television broadcast a brief exchange they had in front of the media in Beijing.
Iranian Foreign Minister Amir Abdollahian said that the flight from Tehran to Beijing took a long time to which the Saudi Foreign Minister said, “ The flight between Riyah and Tehran only takes two hours,”.
Both the countries remained divided for decades over many issues including security and sectarian tensions.
The development is the main focus of the western media at the moment as Chinese surprise role in bringing both sides closer accelerated a geopolitical realignment in the Middle East. The deal would also take on some sensitive issues in the region including the alleged Iranian support for Houthi rebels in Yemen.
According to the reports, the Saudi Arabia also neared an agreement to restart its diplomatic ties with Syria week after Iranian agreement, and those talks were backed and mediated by Russia.
Saudi Arabia and Iran were also working on the high-level talks on the newly restored diplomatic ties. Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi not only welcomed the Saudi government’s decision but also accepted it, the source privy to the development revealed.
However, they said no date for the visit was given so far.
It may be mentioned here that Saudi Arabia ended its diplomatic ties with Iran in 2016 after its embassy was attack in Tehran and its consulate was damaged in the city of Mashhad over protests against execution of a prominent Iranian cleric in the Kingdom.
