Iranian Assistant Foreign Minister Ali Reza Enayati states that Tehran has already chosen its diplomatic team in Saudi Arabia.
-
The Saudi embassy building in Tehran (archive)
Iranian Assistant Foreign Minister Ali Reza Enayati confirmed today, Tuesday, that his country is working to open its embassy in Riyadh, and then the consulate general in Jeddah, before the upcoming Hajj season.
Enayati said in statements to the Iranian “ISNA” agency “The Saudi delegation is working to reopen the Saudi embassy and consulate in Mashhad.”
A Saudi delegation is currently visiting Iran, after it arrived there last Saturday to visit the Saudi embassy in Tehran, the consulate and other political places in the country, according to Enayati.
The Iranian assistant foreign minister indicated that “Tehran has already chosen its diplomatic team in Saudi Arabia,” adding that “the Iranian delegation may arrive in Saudi Arabia during the end of this week.”
Enayati pointed out that Tehran is negotiating with Riyadh over which of the two countries will reopen its embassy first, commenting that “Iran has a timeline, which is before the next Hajj season.”
And he added that the return of Iranians to Umrah in Saudi Arabia may happen after the Hajj season.
Two days ago, the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced the resumption of flights between Iran and Saudi Arabia.
A few days ago, Iran and Saudi Arabia signed a joint statement in China and agreed to start arrangements to reopen embassies and consulates.
The signing step came after the Iranian foreign minister and his Saudi counterpart discussed, during their meeting in the Chinese capital, Beijing, the activation of the content of the agreement to resume relations between the two countries, which was announced last month.
On March 10, Iran and Saudi Arabia announced, in a joint statement, the agreement to resume dialogue and diplomatic relations and reopen the embassies in the two countries within two months, in response to an initiative by Chinese President Xi Jinping.
The visit of Iranian President Ibrahim Raisi to China led to “new and very serious” negotiations between the delegations of Iran and Saudi Arabia, according to Ali Shamkhani, Secretary of the Iranian Supreme National Security Council.
