Saudi Arabia Prepares To Sit With Iran in 6th Round of Talks

ALBAWABA - Saudi Arabia is to hold a fith round of direct talks with Iran. 

This is indeed breaking news that is being posted all over the social media. The two regional rivals have been talking since April 2021. 

“We are looking to schedule a fifth round of direct talks with Iran despite a lack of substantive progress so far,” Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud said in a speech at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday according to Anadolu.

However, the top Saudi diplomat continued to call on Tehran to change its behavior in the region.

Prince Faisal bin Farhan said Riyadh remains interested in talks with Iran but "that will indeed require from our neighbors in Iran a serious desire to address the underlying issues that exist,” he said. “We hope that there is a serious desire to find a new modus operandi."

Such talks is hoped will lead to the establishment of relations long severed between the two countries. Tehran and Riyadh cut off diplomatic relations in January 2016 following an attack on the Saudi Embassy in Tehran after Shia cleric Nimr al-Nimr was executed by Saudi authorities.

The Turkish-based news agency says that relationship between the two countries deteriorated further after Iran in September 2016 accused Riyadh of deliberately causing the death of around 400 Iranian pilgrims in a 2015 stampede in the Muslim holy city of Mecca.

The two sides have since been engaged in a strong regional rivalry, often accusing each other of waging a proxy war for regional influence Andolu adds.

The “Riyadh-Tehran talking initiative” had been instituted from Baghdad with the Iraqi Prime Minister Mustapha Kadhimi taking the lead in bringing the two together and allowing the space and the leeway for their officials to sit, talk and explore different options for the reactivation of diplomatic relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia.

The fact there is a dialogue proves both parties are interested in resolving  the long-outstanding issues between the two capitals. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman, also termed as the effective Saudi ruler long said he wants a diplomatic breakthrough between the two countries.