Iranian and Saudi foreign ministers meet in Pakistan

“We did not have any new developments in this regard,” a spokesman for Iran’s foreign ministry told a news conference this week about the Iran-Saudi talks, IRNA reported. We are still waiting for Riyadh’s answer. The progress of the negotiations will depend on the seriousness of the other side. To the extent that they show seriousness, we are ready to make progress in the talks as well as to reach an understanding on the region and the bilateral talks. We call on Riyadh for political and diplomatic solutions and non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries. Inclusive regional arrangements go through mutual respect and understanding of the realities of these countries.
Meanwhile, the New Arab website wrote about the meeting: The foreign ministers of Iran and Saudi Arabia discussed bilateral relations with Afghanistan.
Although Pakistan has played a behind-the-scenes role in facilitating talks between Iran and Saudi Arabia, it has not commented on the Iranian-Saudi foreign ministry meeting.
New Arabia added that Saudi Arabia and Iran began direct talks this year as world powers sought to revive a nuclear deal with Tehran as the United Nations sought to end the war in Yemen.
According to IRNA, the Jordanian state news agency (Petra) on Monday announced the holding of a security dialogue meeting between Saudi Arabia and Iran with the presence of experts from both sides in Amman.
Regional media quoted the Petra news agency as saying on Monday that a meeting of Iranian and Saudi experts was hosted by the Arab Center for Jordanian Security Studies and discussed a number of security and technical issues.
According to the reports, the two sides expressed their mutual desire to develop relations and strengthen regional stability.
The Islamic Republic of Iran and Saudi Arabia have been two regional powers in the Middle East for decades. However, the conflict of political approaches, different interests, and conflicting alliances, commitments, and views on international issues have often pitted the two countries against each other as two rivals since the early years of the Islamic Revolution. Iran’s anti-imperialist approaches along with different religions and religious beliefs of Saudi rulers during the past decades caused tense relations between the two countries until the events of 1394 led to the formal severance of relations between the two countries.
Riyadh’s defeat in Middle East conflicts, including in Syria, Iraq, and even Lebanon, especially Saudi Arabia’s inability to win in Yemen, brought new tensions. The presence of “Donald Trump” in the White House and the adoption of the approach of maximum pressure against Iran and the cooperation of Bin Salman with him worsened the situation and marked the indirect war of the tankers.
Since the beginning of 2021, Iran and Saudi Arabia have held several rounds of talks, this time without US intervention. Aside from the reasons for this event, the above negotiations can be a sign of the reduction of US influence at the same time as Biden’s decision to leave the region. The American Quincy think tank believes that many factors contributed to the re-establishment of diplomatic relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia, but the ouster of former US President Donald Trump is one of the most important factors in this regard.