Beijing to host Iran, Saudi FMs meeting

A Tuesday report by the London-based newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat quoted informed sources as saying that the planned meeting between Iran’s Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and Saudi Arabia’s Faisal Bin Farhan in Beijing is aimed at activating the terms of a last month deal between the two countries to resume their diplomatic ties.

The Arabic language outlet, which is owned by Saudi Arabia, referred to the terms of the China-brokered deal which stipulates that Iran and Saudi Arabia should reopen their embassies within two months from the deal and after some seven years of closure.

A Wednesday report by the Reuters news agency also quoted an unnamed Iranian official as saying that the meeting between Amir-Abdollahian and Bin Farhan will take place on Thursday in Beijing.

“The top envoys agreed to meet on April 6 in Beijing as the deal was facilitated by China,” the senior Iranian official said.

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.

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.