Iran invites Saudi king to visit Tehran

TEHRAN: Iran said Monday it has formally invited Saudi King Salman to visit Tehran, following a reconciliation agreement reached last month between the two sides.

Saudi Arabia severed relations with Iran in 2016 after its embassy in Tehran and consulate in the northwestern city of Mashhad were attacked during protests. The two Middle East powerhouses had held several rounds of dialogue in Iraq and Oman before reaching the agreement to mend ties on March 10 in China.

On Monday, Iran´s foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani said President Ebrahim Raisi had “invited the Saudi King to visit Iran”. Kanani said the Iranian president had already received an invitation to visit the kingdom.

The spokesman also expressed hope that Iran and Saudi Arabia would reopen their respective diplomatic missions by May 9, as scheduled in the China-brokered agreement. “We and the Saudi side insist on activating the embassies in a very timely manner so that Iranian pilgrims can attend a calm Haj pilgrimage using the services provided by the embassy,” he told a weekly press conference.

The annual Haj pilgrimage to holy sites in Saudi Arabia is expected to begin this year in late June. In recent days, delegations from the two countries have visited the embassies in Riyadh and Tehran and consulates in Jeddah and Mashhad to launch the process of their reopening.

On April 6, the Iranian and Saudi foreign ministers, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and Prince Faisal bin Farhan, held talks in Beijing on the implementation of normalisation of ties. “The foreign ministers of the two countries will meet” again before the reopening of the embassies, the spokesman said.