(Xinhua) – Iranian officials hailed Friday the deal to resume diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia and reopen embassies and missions within two months.
Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Ali Shamkhani said the resumption of Tehran-Riyadh relations will “lead to the development of regional stability and security.”
“Clearing up the misunderstandings and looking to the future in Tehran-Riyadh relations will definitely lead to the development of regional stability and security and expansion of cooperation” between regional countries and the Muslim world to manage the existing challenges, Shamkhani told Nour News, a news outlet affiliated with the SNSC, after signing a tripartite joint statement between Iran, Saudi Arabia and China in Beijing.
Shamkhani described the negotiations between the two countries as “frank, transparent, comprehensive, and constructive.”
He appreciated China’s constructive role in supporting the development of relations between countries, which is necessary for resolving challenges, ensuring peace and stability and promoting international cooperation.
The SNSC chief said the five rounds of initial negotiations between Iran and Saudi Arabia, hosted by Iraq and Oman, were effective in reaching the final agreement, appreciating the two countries for their efforts in this regard.
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian tweeted that restoring normal diplomatic relations between Tehran and Riyadh will provide the two sides, the region, and the Muslim world with “great capacities.”
He said that the policy of expanding relations with neighbors, as the key pivot of the Iranian administration’s foreign policy, is moving on vigorously, and that the Iranian diplomatic apparatus seeks to make arrangements for taking “further regional steps.”
The Iranian government’s spokesman Ali Bahadori Jahromi tweeted that the security and economy of West Asia are “ensured and constructed” by its governments, without foreign interference.
He said the “historic agreement” between Iran and Saudi Arabia in China following rounds of all-Asian negotiations will change regional relations.
Saudi Arabia cut diplomatic ties with Iran in early 2016 in response to the attacks on Saudi diplomatic missions in Iran after the kingdom executed a Shiite cleric.
To improve bilateral relations and ease regional tensions, Iraq hosted four rounds of direct talks between Iran and Saudi Arabia in 2021 and the fifth round in April last year. ■
