Iran to reopen its embassy in Saudi Arabia after seven years. This was announced by a spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, explaining that the country’s embassy in the Saudi capital Riyadh will reopen on Tuesday, while its consulate in Jeddah and its representative office at the Organization of Islamic Cooperation will also reopen on Wednesday. international organization that brings together more than 50 Muslim-majority countries. The reopening of the Iranian embassy in Saudi Arabia was announced about three months after the historic agreement with which the two countries communicated their intention to re-establish their diplomatic relations, interrupted since 2016.
Iran, governed by a Shiite theocracy, and Saudi Arabia, governed by a Sunni absolute monarchy, are two of the main countries in the Middle East: for years they have had conflicting relations and due to their size and importance they have often been considered as the main antagonists in many events in the region. The rupture of diplomatic ties occurred seven years ago, when Iran recalled its ambassador after Saudi Arabia sentenced prominent Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr to death. There were huge protests in Iran at the time, and the Saudi embassy in Tehran was burned down.
In the agreement last March, Saudi Arabia and Iran undertook to reopen their embassies, to reactivate a mutual security agreement that had been suspended after the rupture of diplomatic ties and to agree on the principles of respect for the sovereignty of states and non-interference in internal affairs. However, it is not clear how close the two countries will actually become. There is currently no news on the reopening of the Saudi embassy in Iran.
– Read also: Iran and Saudi Arabia have re-established diplomatic relations
