Iran invites Saudi king to visit amid thaw in ties
Iran stated Monday it has officially invited Saudi King Salman to go to Tehran, following a reconciliation settlement reached remaining month among the 2 facets.
Saudi Arabia severed members of the family with Iran in 2016, after its embassy in Tehran and consulate withinside the northwestern metropolis of Mashhad had been attacked at some point of protests over Riyadh`s execution of Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr.
The Middle East powerhouses had held numerous rounds of discussion in Iraq and Oman earlier than attaining the settlement to fix ties on March 10 in China.
On Monday, Iran’s overseas ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani stated President Ebrahim Raisi had “invited the Saudi King to go to Iran”.
EXPLAINER | Decades-lengthy competition among Iran and Saudi Arabia
Kanani stated the Iranian president had already obtained an invite to go to the Sunni-dominated kingdom.
The spokesman additionally expressed desire that Iran and Saudi Arabia might reopen their respective diplomatic missions via way of means of May 9, as scheduled withinside the China-brokered settlement.
“We and the Saudi aspect insist on activating the embassies in a totally well timed way in order that Iranian pilgrims can attend a peaceful hajj pilgrimage the usage of the offerings supplied via way of means of the embassy,” he instructed a weekly press conference.
The annual hajj pilgrimage to holy webweb sites in Saudi Arabia, one of the pillars of Islam, is anticipated to start this 12 months in past due June.
In latest days, delegations from the 2 international locations have visited the embassies in Riyadh and Tehran and consulates in Jeddah and Mashhad to release the procedure in their reopening.
On April 6 the Iranian and Saudi overseas ministers, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and Prince Faisal bin Farhan, held talks in Beijing at the implementation of normalisation of ties.
“The overseas ministers of the 2 international locations will meet” once more earlier than the reopening of the embassies, the spokesman stated.
Before the March deal to repair ties, Shiite Muslim-majority Iran and Sunni Muslim-dominated Saudi Arabia had subsidized rival facets in struggle zones throughout the location for years, such as in Yemen.
Riyadh led a navy coalition that supported the across the world acknowledged authorities withinside the kingdom, at the same time as Tehran subsidized the Huthi rebels who manipulate the capital Sanaa and big regions of the north.
