President Raeisi accepted Saudi king’s invitation to visit Riyadh: First VP

Iran's First Vice President Mohammad Mokhber says President Seyyed Ebrahim Raeisi has accepted an invitation from Saudi Arabia’s King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud to visit Riyadh.

“King Salman has invited the [Iranian] president [to visit Saudi Arabia] and a positive answer has been given to that invitation,” Mokhber told Mehr news agency on Monday.

Pointing to Iran's relations with Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf littoral states, he said the Iranian president has been pursuing the policy of boosting relations with regional countries since his inauguration in August 2023.

Mokhber noted that the Iranian administration is pressing ahead with one of its main strategies which is to establish good relations with neighboring states.

In a post on his Twitter account on March 19, Mohammad Jamshidi, the Iranian President's Deputy Chief of Staff for Political Affairs, said Saudi Arabia's King has extended an invitation letter to the Iranian president to visit the kingdom, following the recent China-brokered rapprochement deal between the two countries.

The invitation is seen as a significant step towards improving ties between Iran and Saudi Arabia.

After several days of intensive negotiations hosted by China, Iran and Saudi Arabia finally clinched a deal on March 10 to restore diplomatic relations and re-open embassies and missions within two months.

According to a joint statement, Iran and Saudi Arabia underscored the need to respect the national sovereignty and refrain from interfering in the internal affairs of one another.

They agreed to implement a security cooperation agreement signed in April 2001 and another accord reached in May 1998 to boost economic, commercial, investment, technical, scientific, cultural, sports, and youth affairs cooperation.

Saudi Arabia severed diplomatic relations with Iran in January 2016 after Iranian protesters, enraged by the execution of prominent Shia Cleric Sheikh Nimr Baqir al-Nimr by the Saudi government, stormed its embassy in Tehran.

The two sides had held five rounds of negotiations in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad since April 2021.

ME