Iranian FM says spoke to Saudi counterpart at Jordan moot

DUBAI: Iran’s foreign minister said on Wednesday he spoke with his Saudi counterpart on the sidelines of a conference in Jordan the previous day, the highest-level encounter reported between officials from the rival states since they cut ties in 2016.

The Middle East’s leading powers, Saudi Arabia and Iran have been on opposing sides of conflicts across the region, including in Syria and Yemen.

Iraq has hosted five meetings between Saudi and Iranian officials since last year in a bid to ease tensions, the last of which was in April, without achieving any diplomatic breakthroughs. Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, tweeting in Arabic, on Wednesday listed his Saudi counterpart, Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, as one of several foreign ministers with whom he had the chance to hold “friendly talks” on the sidelines of the Jordan conference. The Saudi foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Amirabdollahian wrote that Prince Faisal “assured me of his country’s willingness to continue the dialogue with Iran”. In separate comments reported by Iran’s official IRNA news agency, Amirabdollahian said he had “announced our readiness to continue the process that started in Baghdad”.

“We are interested in resuming talks with Saudi Arabia and they also wanted it,” he said, according to IRNA.