Iran’s vice president for parliamentary affairs, Mohammad Hosseini, told reporters at a cabinet meeting in Tehran on Wednesday that Saudi foreign ministers attended the inauguration of Brazilian president-elect Luis Inacio Lula da Silva. He said he had extensive talks with
Hosseini said the top Saudi diplomat listened patiently to what he had to say and also expressed his own views.
He pointed out that the main topic of the talks was the fate of negotiations between Iran and Saudi Arabia that began with Iraqi mediation.
“They (Saudi) have expressed readiness to resume talks (with Iran),” Hosseini said.
He said Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister welcomed the idea of holding a series of meetings to address differences and concerns in order to reach a conclusion.
“The (Iranian) Ministry of Foreign Affairs is pursuing the matter and has taken a series of measures. Two major countries,” he added.
Noting that large numbers of Iranians make the Hajj pilgrimage every year and stressing the need for closer cooperation between Tehran and Riyadh, Hosseini stresses the importance of the two countries rebuilding their ties. said.
Representatives of Iran and Saudi Arabia held several meetings in Baghdad last year.
Diplomatic relations between Tehran and Riyadh soured after the January 2016 execution of Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr in Saudi Arabia. Riyadh then cut ties with Tehran in response to an attack by angry protesters on the Riyadh embassy in the Iranian capital.
Saudi Arabia’s military campaign against Yemen and the death of hundreds of Iranian Mecca pilgrims in a deadly September 2015 crackdown in Mina, Saudi Arabia, has laid the groundwork for worsening tensions between Tehran and Riyadh. did it.
