Saudi Arabia: No progress in our talks with Iran
English - Saturday 16 October 2021 الساعة 06:47 pm
Aden, NewsYemen:
On Friday, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan denied that tangible progress had been achieved in the talks that took place between the Kingdom and Iran recently.
Prince Faisal bin Farhan said, during a press conference in Washington, that the talks between Saudi Arabia and Iran were "friendly", but they did not achieve tangible progress.
The Saudi foreign minister warned of the region entering a very dangerous stage with Iran accelerating its nuclear activities, stressing the need for Tehran to quickly stop activities that violate the nuclear agreement.
The "Financial Times" newspaper quoted a Saudi official (it did not name him) that "the dialogue with Iran so far lacks substance."
The Saudi official said that his country is studying Iran's request to open its consulate in Jeddah, as well as opening its representative office for the Organization of Islamic Cooperation in the same city.
But at the same time, he stressed that Riyadh is currently not ready to reopen its consulate in the Iranian city of Mashhad to restore relations that were severed in January 2016.
Four rounds of talks have been held between Riyadh and Tehran so far since last April, including the first meeting over the past month with the government of new President Ibrahim Raisi.
According to a report by "Bloomberg" agency, Iran has asked Saudi Arabia to resume their diplomatic relations and reopen the two countries' consulates in Jeddah and Mashhad as a prelude to ending the war in Yemen and resolving the outstanding issues between them.
