2023-06-06 15:24:00
Iran reopened its embassy in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, today, Tuesday, nearly three months after the surprise announcement of an agreement between the two most prominent regional powers in the Gulf to resume diplomatic relations after a seven-year break.
Tehran and Riyadh severed their relations in 2016 after demonstrators in the Islamic Republic attacked Saudi diplomatic missions, against the backdrop of the execution of the Saudi Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr.
And Saudi media reported that the reopening ceremony of the embassy was held in the presence of representatives from the Saudi and Iranian foreign ministries, while an Iranian official confirmed that “the Iranian embassy in Riyadh has officially started its work.”
Yesterday, Monday, the Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman, Nasser Kanaani, confirmed in a statement that “the Iranian embassy in Riyadh, the Iranian consulate in Jeddah, and the office of Iran’s representative to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation will be officially reopened on Tuesday and Wednesday.”
Last month, the state-run English-language newspaper Iran Daily reported that Tehran had “appointed high-ranking diplomat Alireza Enayati as the new ambassador to Saudi Arabia.” However, this appointment was not officially announced by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Inayati currently holds the position of Deputy Foreign Minister, after he was ambassador to Kuwait during the era of moderate President Hassan Rouhani.
Today, the former Iranian embassy building, which had been closed for years, was reopened after it was recently fully restored, after the two countries exchanged visits of two technical delegations last April to discuss the issue of reopening embassies.
On March 10, Iran and Saudi Arabia reached an agreement sponsored by China to reopen their embassies and implement economic and security cooperation agreements signed more than twenty years ago.
Iranian President Ibrahim Raisi received an invitation to visit Saudi Arabia, according to Tehran, while Iran announced that it had invited the Saudi monarch, King Salman bin Abdulaziz, to visit Iran.
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