Saudi and Iranian
officials held direct talks this month in a bid to ease tensions between the
two foes, a senior Iranian official and two regional sources said, as
Washington works to revive a 2015 nuclear pact with Tehran and end the Yemen
war.
اضافة اعلان
The April 9 meeting in
Iraq, first reported by the Financial Times on Sunday, did not lead to any
breakthrough, the Iranian official and one of the regional sources familiar
with the matter said.
The regional source
said the meeting focused on Yemen, where a military coalition led by Saudi
Arabia has been battling the Iran-aligned Houthi group since March 2015.
“This was a low-level
meeting to explore whether there might be a way to ease ongoing tensions in the
region,” the Iranian official said, adding that it was based on Iraq’s request.
Iraq’s prime minister
held talks with Saudi Arabia’s crown prince earlier this month and also visited
the
United Arab Emirates.
The second regional
source said the talks also touched on Lebanon, which is facing a political
vacuum amid a dire financial crisis. Gulf Arab states are alarmed by the
expanding role of Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah movement.
Saudi authorities did
not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. The FT report said
that a senior Saudi official denied there had been any talks with Iran.
Sunni Gulf power Saudi
Arabia cut ties with Shiite Iran in January 2016 following the storming of its
embassy in Tehran in a row over Riyadh’s execution of a Shiite Muslim cleric.
A Western diplomat in
the region said the United States and Britain were informed in advance of the
Saudi-Iran talks but had “not seen the outcome”.
Washington and Tehran
are holding indirect talks in Vienna to revive the world powers’ nuclear accord
with Iran, which former US President Donald Trump quit in 2018. Tehran has
breached several nuclear restrictions after Trump reimposed sanctions.
Riyadh last week
called for a nuclear deal with stronger parameters and for involvement of Gulf
states, which are concerned about Iran’s missiles program and its support for
regional proxies.
The United States is
also pressing for a ceasefire deal in Yemen which Riyadh and the Saudi-backed
Yemeni government have welcomed. The Houthis have yet to accept and have kept
up cross border missile and drone attacks on Saudi cities.
A Saudi foreign
ministry official told Reuters last week that confidence-building measures
could pave the way for expanded nuclear talks with Gulf Arab participation.
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