SULAIMANI (ESTA) — The fifth round of talks between Iran and Saudi Arabia will be held in Baghdad to normalize bilateral relations, semi-official ISNA news agency cited Iranian ambassador to Iraq as saying.
The diplomat, Iraj Masjedi, said the meeting would be held “soon”, without specifying the exact date of the talks, according to ISNA.
Baghdad hosted talks between officials from its two neighbors and mutual adversaries in April 2021.
Iraq hopes its mediation will stop neighbors settling scores on Iraqi territory.
Saudi Arabia, which cut ties with Iran in 2016, has described the talks as cordial but exploratory, while an Iranian official in October said they had gone a “good distance”.
Tensions between the two foes spiked in 2019 after an assault on Saudi oil plants that Riyadh blamed on Iran, a charge Tehran denies, and continue to simmer over Yemen where a Saudi-led coalition is battling the Iran-aligned Houthi group.
