BAGHDAD — An end to years of tension between
regional rivals Iran and Saudi Arabia is near,
Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhemi said in an interview published on Saturday.
اضافة اعلان
Iraq, a neighbor to both countries, has hosted five
rounds of talks over the past year aimed at restoring ties between Sunni Muslim
Saudi Arabia, and Shiite-majority Iran.
Following the latest round in
Baghdad, Iraqi
officials have sounded increasingly optimistic, talking of an imminent sixth
session and even going so far as to raise the prospect of a resumption of
diplomatic relations severed in 2016.
Iran and the Saudi kingdom support rival sides in
several conflict zones across the region, including in Yemen where the Huthi
rebels are backed by Tehran, and Riyadh leads a military coalition supporting
the government.
In 2016, Iranian protesters attacked
Saudi diplomatic missions in Iran after the kingdom executed Shiite cleric Nimr Al-Nimr.
Riyadh responded by cutting ties with Tehran.
“Our brothers in Saudi Arabia and the
Islamic Republic of Iran approach the dialogue with a big responsibility as demanded by
the current regional situation,” Kadhemi said in his interview with the state-owned
Al-Sabah newspaper.
“We are convinced that reconciliation is near,”
which would benefit regional stability, said Kadhemi, who Iraqi diplomats say
attended the most recent meeting.
On Tuesday, the spokesman for Iraq’s Foreign
Ministry, Ahmed Al-Sahaf, said the talks “are continuing ... and could perhaps
lead to a restoration of diplomatic representation between Iran and Saudi
Arabia”, state news agency INA reported.
In March, Iranian media said that Tehran had
suspended participation in the talks after Saudi Arabia announced it had
executed a record 81 people in just one day.
They had been convicted of various crimes related to
“terrorism”, and included men linked to
Yemen’s Huthi rebels.
But in early March, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin
Salman said his country and Iran were “neighbors forever”, and that it was
“better for both of us to work it out and to look for ways in which we can
coexist”.
Talks resumed on April 2021 between senior security
officials from the two countries.
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