06.04.2023
The meeting between the foreign ministers marks the first formal meeting between the two countries in seven years. China acts as a mediator for the oil powers to reestablish their diplomatic relations.
The foreign ministers of Iran and Saudi Arabia met this Thursday (04.06.2023) in Beijing, which marks the first formal meeting between the heads of diplomacy of both countries in seven years, barely a month following they agreed reestablish diplomatic relations with the mediation of China.
An image released this Thursday by the Chinese network CCTV shows the Saudi minister, Faisal bin Farhan al Saud, and his Iranian counterpart, Hosein Amir Abdolahian, shaking hands, with the Chinese Foreign Minister, Qin Qang, located in the middle of both.
Security, stability, prosperity
The rapprochement of Iran and Saudi Arabia will help promote “security, stability and prosperity” in the Middle East, the foreign ministers of both countries said on Thursday following a meeting in Beijing. “The two sides agreed to develop their cooperation in all sectors to ensure the security and stability of the region,” Hossein Amir-Abdollahian of Iran and Faisal bin Farhan of Saudi Arabia said in a joint statement.
For its part, the Iranian Foreign Ministry confirmed the meeting on its Twitter account, publishing a couple of photographs in which both appear already sitting chatting smiling. According to the Iranian television channel Press Tv, both stressed during their meeting the importance of restoring diplomatic relations and discussed the next steps to reopen their respective embassies in Tehran and Riyadh.
China: mediator between the oil powers
The meeting confirms what was anticipated the day before by the Saudi daily Asharq Al-Awsat, which assured that the ministers would meet this Thursday in Beijing as part of the agreement reached last month mediated by China.
Likewise, Iranian diplomacy had announced that the ministers spoke by phone last Sunday and that they would meet in “the next few days”, without specifying where or when, to, among other matters, discuss the reopening of their embassies in both countries. That was one of the points of the agreement signed on March 10 in China, which has acted as a mediator between the two oil powers, which for years have disputed regional hegemony and supported rival factions in conflicts in the area.
Saudi Arabia cut diplomatic relations with Tehran in 2016 following attacks on its diplomatic headquarters in the Persian country following the execution in the Arab kingdom of an important Shiite cleric. In April 2021, secret talks between Tehran and Riyadh began in Baghdad, which were later made public. China, for its part, has praised the mediation role it has played for Iran and Saudi Arabia to reestablish their diplomatic relations.
ies (EFE, AFP)
