Iran ready to negotiate with Saudi Arabia

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Iran is ready for negotiation with Saudi Arabia, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohamad Javad Zarif said.

"Iran has always been ready for negotiation but our neighboring countries have not been ready. If Saudi is willing to open a new page in its relation with Iran, then we are ready," Zarif said in an interview with Lebanese Almayadeen TV, Iranian Students’ News Agency (ISNA) reported on Wednesday.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif /Reuters Photo

He also mentioned that to open a new page, both countries should not look at the region's circumstance because the situation is critical, but to discuss more on the cooperation between each other.

Iranian foreign ministry has confirmed earlier that Iranian and Saudi diplomatic delegations will travel to one another's countries merely to visit their respective embassies and consulates nearly 20 months after the severance of bilateral ties. The visit is expected to happen in the following weeks.

Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir on Tuesday denied any warming of relations with regional rival Iran after Tehran thanked Riyadh for its handling of the annual Hajj pilgrimage.

"If Iran wants to have good relations with Saudi Arabia, it has to change its policies. It has to respect international law," Jubeir told a press conference in London.

"The Hajj is a religious obligation, it has nothing to do with politics," he added, referring to the pilgrimage which forms one of the five pillars of Islam.

Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir speaks at a briefing with reporters at the Saudi Embassy in London, Britain, on September 5, 2017. /Reuters Photo

Despite the two countries having severed diplomatic relations in January 2016 after Iranians stormed the Saudi Embassy in Tehran following Riyadh's execution of a prominent Shiite cleric, some 86,000 Iranian pilgrims took part in the Hajj last week.

Iranians had been unable to participate in 2016 after talks collapsed over security concerns, following a stampede the previous year which killed up to 2,300 people, including hundreds of Iranians.

Earlier on Tuesday Iran had thanked Saudi Arabia for running a successful Hajj this year, saying it opened the way for negotiations.

Iranian pilgrims arrive for the annual Hajj pilgrimage, in Arafat outside the holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia, August 30, 2017. /Reuters Photo‍

"We thank Saudi Arabia... for adopting a new approach in dealing with Iranian pilgrims," said Ali Ghazi-Askar, the head of the Hajj organization in Tehran, according to the state broadcaster. He added that it marked an opportunity for the two sides to "resolve their bilateral issues in other fields."

Talk of rapprochement 'laughable'

Relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia are at their worst in years, with each accusing the other of subverting regional security and supporting opposite sides in conflicts in Syria, Iraq and Yemen.

Last month, Zarif said Iran would soon exchange diplomatic visits with Saudi Arabia. He was quoted by the Iranian Students' News Agency (ISNA) that diplomatic visits could take place after the Hajj pilgrimage ends in the first week of September.

But his Saudi counterpart said on Tuesday that Iran's talk of a possible rapprochement with the kingdom was "laughable."

"At this time, we do not see... that they're serious about wanting to be a good neighbor," al-Jubeir said.

He also said that if the rift with Qatar continued for two years then "so be it."

Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) severed ties with Qatar in June over Doha's alleged support for terrorism.

(CCTV's reporter Gong Ming has contributed to this story.)

Source(s): AFP ,Reuters