Iran says Saudi is ready to take reconciliation talks to a higher level

Iran and Saudi Arabia are ready to take reconciliation talks to a higher level, more than a year after they began and six years after the two rivals severed ties, Iran’s foreign minister says.

Since April last year, Iraq has hosted five rounds of talks between Sunni Muslim Saudi Arabia and Shiite-majority Iran, which support opposing sides in various conflicts in the region.

“Progress has been made in these negotiations,” Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said in an interview with Iran’s state broadcaster on Thursday evening.

He added that last week Iran received a message from Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein who said “the Saudi side is ready to move the talks to the political and public level.”

Iran’s top diplomat noted that previous rounds have been mostly at the security officer level.

“We have declared our willingness to take the talks to the political stage,” he said.

In 2016, Iranian protesters attacked Saudi Arabian diplomatic missions in Iran after the kingdom executed Shia cleric Nimr al-Nimr. Riyadh responded by cutting ties with Tehran.

Amir-Abdollahian said he hoped the negotiations with Riyadh would result in “normal diplomatic relations between Saudi Arabia and the Islamic Republic of Iran.”

Officials in Tehran have previously said that political-level talks could yield better and faster results.

After the last round of negotiations in April, Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhemi said he believed “reconciliation was near” between Riyadh and Tehran, another reflection of the region’s shifting political alignments.

After Iran-Saudi Arabia broke off ties, Abu Dhabi downgraded diplomatic ties with Tehran and Kuwait recalled its ambassador.

Last week, the United Arab Emirates said it was “considering” appointing an ambassador to Tehran.

Amir-Abdollahian described the Emirates’ move more definitively, saying, “The UAE has decided to send an ambassador to Tehran” and that will happen “soon”.

Amir-Abdollahian also said that Kuwait is taking a similar measure.

“Kuwait presented its ambassador and we also announced our agreement. Kuwait’s new ambassador will arrive in Tehran in the next few days,” he said.