Iran, Saudi ministers meet in China to cement reconciliation
The Hindu
The foreign ministers of Middle East rivals Iran and Saudi Arabia met in Beijing on Thursday.
The foreign ministers of Middle East rivals Iran and Saudi Arabia met in Beijing on Thursday, paving the way for normalised ties under a surprise China-brokered deal.
Tehran and Riyadh announced an agreement last month to restore relations that had been severed seven years ago when protesters in Iran attacked Saudi diplomatic missions.
The shock rapprochement between mainly-Sunni Muslim Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter, and Shiite-majority Iran, strongly at odds with Western governments over its nuclear activities, has the potential to reshape relations across a region characterised by turbulence for decades.
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and his Saudi counterpart Prince Faisal bin Farhan "negotiated and exchanged opinions with the emphasis on the official resumption of bilateral relations and the executive steps towards the reopening of the embassies and consulates of the two countries", Iran's foreign ministry said in a statement.
Saudi state TV channel Al Ekhbariya reported that the two ministers held a meeting in Beijing to "discuss implementing the agreement", airing footage of the pair shaking hands in front of Saudi and Iranian flags and then talking and smiling.
In a readout from state broadcaster CCTV, Beijing hailed "the first official meeting between the foreign ministers of the two countries in more than seven years" and Beijing's "active mediation" in the diplomacy.
During phone conversations in March, the ministers had vowed to meet during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which ends later in April.
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