According to Iranian and Saudi official media, Iran and Saudi Arabia have decided to resume diplomatic relations and reopen their embassies within two months.
After discussions on Friday in Beijing, the deal was reached.
Ali Shamkhani, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, was pictured and recorded alongside China’s top diplomat Wang Yi and Saudi Arabia’s Musaad bin Mohammed al-Aiban in Iranian state media.
Following the decision’s implementation, the foreign ministries of the two countries will meet to discuss plans for an ambassadorial exchange, according to Iranian official television.
In the video that was shown by Iranian media, Wang expressed his “whole-hearted congratulations” on the “wisdom” of the two nations.
Both parties have shown seriousness, he claimed. “China supports this accord wholeheartedly.”
The joint statement from Saudi Arabia and Iran, which stated that the two countries had agreed to respect state sovereignty and not intervene in each other’s internal affairs, was issued by the Saudi Press Agency, which served as confirmation of the agreement.
A security cooperation pact inked in 2001 between Riyadh and Tehran has been activated, according to the statement.
Beijing, Riyadh, and Iran “stressed their keenness to undertake all efforts towards promoting regional and international peace and security,” the statement read.
Shamkhani described the negotiations in Beijing as “clear, transparent, thorough, and productive,” according to the Iranian state-run IRNA news agency.
“Removing misunderstandings and the future-oriented views in Tehran and Riyadh relations will undoubtedly improve regional stability and security as well as enhancing collaboration among Persian Gulf nations and the globe of Islam for managing contemporary issues,” Shamkhani was reported as saying.
According to Wang, China would continue to act responsibly as a large country and play a positive role in resolving hotspot issues.
China has diligently performed its obligations as a host for conversation as a “good-faith” and “trustworthy” mediator, he said.
The regional rivals have long been at odds with one another.
As a result of demonstrators breaking into Saudi diplomatic missions in Iran in 2016, Riyadh severed ties with Tehran. Days previously, Saudi Arabia had murdered a well-known Shia Muslim cleric, which led to the protests.
Shia-majority Sunni-majority nations and Iran Saudi Arabia supports opposing sides in a number of conflict areas in the Middle East, including Yemen, where Tehran is supporting the Houthi rebels while Riyadh is in charge of a military alliance supporting the government.
Yet lately, both parties have worked to strengthen their bonds.
Ali Hashem of Al Jazeera reported from Tehran that discussions between Saudi and Iranian officials have occurred in Baghdad in recent years. “In 2021, the Iraqis first initiated mediation discussions. During the 2021 elections in Iraq, everything came to a halt.
After five rounds of negotiations, “there was no news emerging,” he claimed. “Meetings at the security level also occurred in Oman. Those were mostly focused on the Yemeni crisis.
Iran and Saudi Arabia are on opposing sides in the conflicts in Lebanon and Syria in addition to the one in Yemen. Hence, improved ties between Iran and Riyadh may have an impact on Middle Eastern affairs.
When these two countries disagree, “the security situation in the region, like in Yemen and Lebanon, deteriorates and suffers,” stated Hashem.
It’s probable that these nations may begin to make concessions as a result of the agreement, he said. “This agreement has the potential to improve the region’s security situation. In these nations, they are very powerful.
China has a strong interest in preventing the security situation in the region from “descending into chaos,” such as “in 2019, when the waterways of Hormuz were the sites of different explosions and attacks,” according to Adnan Tabatabai, CEO of the Center for Applied Research in Partnership with the Orient, a think tank with headquarters in Germany.
There are natural reasons for the Chinese to attempt and use the influence they have over both Tehran and Riyadh to try and balance these relations and complete what the Iraqis and Omanis had actually begun, according to Tabatabai.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi recently paid a visit to Beijing, and Chinese President Xi Jinping attended discussions with Gulf Arab countries that are critical to China’s energy imports in Riyadh in December. The largest consumer of Saudi oil is China.
According to a spokesman for the White House National Security Council, the United States is aware of rumours that diplomatic ties between Iran and Saudi Arabia have been restored, but she deferred questions about specifics to the Saudis.
In general, the spokesperson told the Reuters news agency, “We support any attempts to help stop the war in Yemen and de-escalate tensions in the Middle East area. Deterrence, diplomacy, and de-escalation are the main tenets of the strategy President [Joseph] Biden described during his visit to the area last year.
It has been common to hear anti-American sentiments in Iran, but Tabatabai noted that “from at least the fall of 2019 onwards, there is also some disappointment and some increasing scepticism inside Saudi Arabia towards the role of the US in that region,” in reference to the US having no role in this agreement.
Saudi Arabia felt the need to rethink how it can protect its territory, borders, and interests because the security umbrella that the US was meant to provide for it and its allies is no longer an actual concept.
