SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Iran has received contradictory statements from Saudi Arabia on the renewal of bilateral relations, the country’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said on Thursday.
Amirabdollahian said during a news conference in Beirut that Tehran welcomes a natural return to bilateral relations with Riyadh, according to Reuters.
“However, mixed messages have been received from the Kingdom. We expect that the Saudis will act in the interest of the region,” Reuters quoted him as saying.
Sunni Muslim Saudi Arabia and Shia Iran, which are locked in proxy conflicts throughout the Middle East, started direct talks last year to try to contain tensions.
Iraq’s foreign minister, who brokers talks between the two regional rivals in Baghdad, had said the fifth round of talks would start on 16th March.
However, Iran’s Nour News agency said Tehran had “unilaterally suspended talks with Saudi Arabia”, without specifying the reason.
Riyadh in 2016 severed ties with Iran after Iranian protesters stormed the Saudi embassy in Tehran following the execution of a Shia cleric in Saudi Arabia.
The two countries have backed opposing sides in regional conflicts and political disputes in Syria, Lebanon and Iraq for years, and Saudi Arabia has led an Arab coalition waging war against the Iran-aligned Houthi movement in Yemen since 2015.
