Current:Home > NewsIran’s foreign minister visits Saudi Arabia’s powerful crown prince as tensions between rivals ease -RiskRadar
Iran’s foreign minister visits Saudi Arabia’s powerful crown prince as tensions between rivals ease
View
Date:2025-04-24 13:37:52
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran’s foreign minister met Friday with Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as part of his visit to the kingdom, a sign of how the two countries are trying to ease tensions after years of turmoil.
Images of Iran’s top diplomat, Hossein Amirabdollahian, sitting with Prince Mohammed would have been unthinkable only months earlier, as the longtime rivals have been engaged in what officials in both Tehran and Riyadh have viewed as a proxy conflict across the wider Middle East. The prince even went as far as to compare Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to Adolf Hitler at one point in 2017.
But since reaching a Chinese-mediated détente in March, Iran and Saudi Arabia have moved toward reopening diplomatic missions in each other’s countries. Saudi King Salman has even invited Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, a hard-line protégé of Khamenei, to visit the kingdom as well.
Challenges remain, however, particularly over Iran’s advancing nuclear program, the Saudi-led war in Yemen and security across the region’s waterways. Meanwhile, the U.S. is still trying to finalize a deal with Iran to free detained American citizens in exchange for the release of billions of dollars frozen in South Korea, while also bolstering its troop presence in the Persian Gulf.
Saudi state television aired images of Prince Mohammed sitting with Amirabdollahian in the Red Sea port city of Jeddah.
The state-run Saudi Press Agency offered few substantive details of their conversation, saying merely that they reviewed relations and “future opportunities for cooperation.”
In a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, Amirabdollahian said the two men talked for 90 minutes at their meeting in Jeddah.
“Honest, open, useful and fruitful talks based on neighborly policy,” the foreign minister wrote in his post. “Through the wills of heads of the two countries, sustainable bilateral ties in all fields have persisted. We agree on ‘security and development for all’ in the region.”
Amirabdollahian arrived Thursday in Riyadh, the Saudi capital, for meetings with his counterpart, Prince Faisal bin Farhan. The kingdom broke ties with Iran in 2016 after protesters invaded Saudi diplomatic posts there. Saudi Arabia had executed a prominent Shiite cleric with 46 others days earlier, triggering the demonstrations. The kingdom also initially backed rebels trying to overthrow the Iranian-backed president of Syria, Bashar Assad, while also opposing the Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Since the U.S. unilaterally withdrew from Iran’s nuclear deal with world powers in 2018, Iran has been blamed for a series of attacks. Those assaults include one targeting the heart of Saudi Arabia’s oil industry in 2019, temporarily halving the kingdom’s crude production.
But after the coronavirus pandemic and the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, Gulf Arab nations including Saudi Arabia have begun reassessing how to manage relations with Iran. Prince Mohammed as well wants a peaceful Middle East with stable oil prices to fuel his own grand development plans for the kingdom costing billions of dollars.
In March, the kingdom and Iran reached an agreement in China to reopen embassies.
Before Amirabdollahian’s visit, the last Iranian foreign minister to visit Saudi Arabia on a public trip was Mohammad Javad Zarif, who traveled to the kingdom in 2015 to offer condolences for the death of King Abdullah.
The visit comes as Saudi Arabia is still struggling to withdraw itself from its yearslong war in Yemen against the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels who hold the capital, Sanaa. Amirabdollahian’s visit coincides with a new visit by Omani mediators there to try to reach a peace agreement.
___
Associated Press writer Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Iran, contributed to this report.
veryGood! (8232)
Related
- 'Most Whopper
- Stock market today: Asian markets track Wall Street’s decline, eroding last year’s gains
- Should I get paid for work drug testing? Can I be fired for my politics? Ask HR
- ‘Black Panther’ performer Carrie Bernans identified as pedestrian hurt in NYC crash
- Meta donates $1 million to Trump’s inauguration fund
- Who won Powerball? See winning numbers after Michigan player snags $842 million jackpot
- Rescuers race against time in search for survivors in Japan after powerful quakes leave 62 dead
- California begins 2024 with below-normal snowpack a year after one of the best starts in decades
- North Carolina justices rule for restaurants in COVID
- What's open today? New Year's Day hours for restaurants, stores and fast-food places.
Ranking
- South Korean president's party divided over defiant martial law speech
- What to know about changes to this year’s FAFSA application for college students
- Michigan, Washington bring contrast of styles to College Football Playoff title game
- Who won Powerball? See winning numbers after Michigan player snags $842 million jackpot
- Megan Fox's ex Brian Austin Green tells Machine Gun Kelly to 'grow up'
- To help rare whales, Maine and Massachusetts will spend $27 million on data and gear improvements
- What to know about changes to this year’s FAFSA application for college students
- Japanese transport officials and police begin on-site probe after fatal crash on Tokyo runway
Recommendation
Alex Murdaugh’s murder appeal cites biased clerk and prejudicial evidence
Missouri GOP leaders say LGBTQ+ issues will take a back seat to child care, education policy in 2004
Series of small explosions, no injuries reported after 1.7-magnitude quake in New York
North Carolina presidential primary candidates have been finalized; a Trump challenge is on appeal
The 401(k) millionaires club keeps growing. We'll tell you how to join.
Dan Campbell has finally been Lionized but seems focused on one thing: Moving on
Brooke Hogan confirms marriage, posts 'rare' photo of husband Steven Oleksy: 'Really lucky'
Police say Massachusetts man shot wife and daughter before shooting himself