Iran, Saudi Arabia to reopen embassies by May 9

TEHRAN, Iran

Iran and Saudi Arabia will reopen embassies to each other by May 9, according to a senior Iranian diplomat on Monday.

Alireza Enayati, director for Persian Gulf affairs at the Iranian Foreign Ministry, told state news agency IRNA that Tehran and Riyadh are set to reopen embassies.

Last month, the two countries agreed to revive their diplomatic relations after marathon talks that lasted two years. The breakthrough came in the Chinese capital Beijing.

Earlier this month, the top diplomats of the two countries met in Beijing to discuss the reopening of embassies, reinstatement of ambassadors, as well as the resumption of flights between the two sides.

Enayati said a Saudi technical delegation visited Iran last week and inspected their country's embassy in Tehran before heading to Mashhad to inspect the Saudi consulate there. Their visit came after two delegations from Iran visited Saudi Arabia.

Both the Saudi Embassy in Tehran and the consulate in Mashhad were closed after an angry mob attacked them in January 2016 following the execution of prominent Saudi Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr Al-Nimr.

The Iranian diplomat said that another Saudi delegation is scheduled to visit Tehran in the coming days to take the process of reopening diplomatic missions forward.

The Iranian delegation that visited Riyadh recently, he said, met with the Saudi deputy foreign minister, describing their meeting as "good and constructive."

Enayati said the two countries are looking to open the embassies and consulates before the Hajj pilgrimage starts to help facilitate the affairs of Iranian pilgrims.

He also informed about another meeting between Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and his Saudi counterpart Prince Faisal bin Farhan in the coming days, saying the meeting is on the agenda before the diplomatic missions are reopened.

On the resumption of flights between Iranian and Saudi cities, the diplomat said the aviation officials of the two countries are set to meet and hold discussions to reactivate their bilateral air transport agreement.

Speaking at his weekly press conference on Monday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said President Ebrahim Raisi has extended an invitation to Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz to visit Tehran.

The invitation is in response to the monarch’s previous invitation to the Iranian president to visit Riyadh, which the latter has accepted.

He said the process of implementing agreements reached between the foreign ministers was progressing well and efforts were underway to reactivate diplomatic missions in the two countries.