Alghadeer TV Alghadeer TV
Iran and Saudi Arabia have reached an agreement in the Chinese capital of Beijing to restore their diplomatic relations and re-open embassies and missions, seven years after they were broken off over several issues.
The agreement was struck on Friday after several days of intensive negotiations between Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Ali Shamkhani and his Saudi counterpart in Beijing.
The restoration of ties was officially announced in a joint statement by Iran, Saudi Arabia, and China on Friday.
The statement was inked by Shakhani, Musaid Al Aiban, Saudi Arabia’s national security adviser, and Wang Yi, the director of the Office of the Central Foreign Affairs Commission of the Chinese Communist Party.
Following talks between Iranian President Ebrahim Raeisi and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Beijing in February, Shamkhani held intensive talks with his Saudi counterpart in Beijing since Monday to find a final solution to the issues between Tehran and Riyadh.
Speaking after signing the agreement, Shamkhani said the negotiations between the two countries were “frank, transparent, comprehensive.”
“Clearing up the misunderstandings and looking to the future in Tehran-Riyadh relations will definitely lead to the development of regional stability and security and the increase of cooperation between the countries of the Persian Gulf and the Islamic world to manage the existing challenges,” he said.
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.
