Saudi and Iranian officials are holding talks to fix relations

Senior Saudi and Iranian officials have held direct talks to try to repair relations between the two regional rivals, five years after severing diplomatic ties, three officials said in talks.

The negotiations, which took place in Baghdad this month, are believed to be the first significant political discussions between the two nations since 2016 and will come as Joe Biden tries. reactivate the nuclear deal Iran signed with world powers in 2015 and reduced regional tension.

Saudi Arabia is ready to end its war in Yemen against Houthi rebels aligned with Iran, who have intensified their attacks on Saudi cities and oil infrastructure. The Houthis have launched dozens of missiles and drones loaded with explosives into the kingdom this year.

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has also taken steps that appear to lean towards gaining favor with the Biden administration, which has pledged to re-evaluate relations with the kingdom and end the six-year war in Yemen.

The first round of Saudi-Iranian talks took place in Baghdad on April 9. They included discussions about houthi attacks and were positive, one official said.

The official said the Saudi delegation was led by Khalid bin Ali al-Humaidan, the head of intelligence, and added that another round of talks had been scheduled for next week.

The process is being facilitated by Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi, who held talks with Prince Mohammed in Riyadh last month.

“It simply came to our notice then [related to the nuclear deal] they are moving faster and [because of] the Houthi attacks, ”the official said.

A senior Saudi official denied any talks had been held with Iran. The Iraqi and Iranian governments did not comment.

But a senior Iraqi official and a foreign diplomat confirmed the talks. The Iraqi official added that Baghdad has also facilitated “communication channels” between Iran and Egypt, and Iran and Jordan.

“The prime minister is keen to personally play a role in turning Iraq into a bridge between these antagonistic powers in the region,” the official said.

“It is in the interest of Iraq to play this role. The more confrontation you have in the region, the more they play here… And these talks are taking place.”

Relations between Saudi Arabia, which is considered the leader of the Sunni Muslim world, and Iran, the region’s top Shiite power, fell to a minimum in January 2016 after the kingdom’s embassy in Tehran was looted. .

The embassy caught fire after Saudi Arabia executed Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, a senior Shiite cleric. Rivals, who accuse each other of destabilizing the region, broke off diplomatic relations.

Tensions rose further in 2018, after former President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the United States from Iran’s nuclear deal and imposed crippling sanctions on the Islamic republic.

Prince Mohammed was a staunch supporter of Trump’s high-pressure campaign against Tehran. But Saudi Arabia’s vulnerability to the attack was later exposed an assault of missiles and drones in September 2019, it temporarily canceled half of the kingdom’s crude production.

Houthis claimed responsibility for the attack, but U.S. and Saudi officials blamed Iran.

Washington and Riyadh accuse Iran of smuggling missiles and drones into the Houthis, a tough Islamist movement that has controlled Sanaa, the Yemeni capital and northern Yemen since early 2015.

Iraq, home to powerful Iran-backed militant movements, was also caught up in regional tension, especially when Trump ordered the assassination of Qassem Soleimani, the commander of the Quds expeditionary force of the Revolutionary Guard. Iran, in Baghdad in January 2020.

This pushed the United States and the Islamic republic to the brink of war, with Iraq, home to about 2,500 U.S. soldiers, a likely battleground, as Baghdad was squeezed between Washington and Tehran.

Iran has established strong security, political and trade ties with its neighbor since the U.S.-led invasion toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003.

The Saudi-Iranian talks are a sign that the election of Biden, who has said he will rejoin the 2015 nuclear deal and lift many of the sanctions on Iran if Tehran again complies with the deal, has begun to change regional dynamics.

The other signatories to the nuclear deal – Iran, the EU, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Russia and China – have held talks in Vienna to pave the way for the US to rejoin.

In January, Riyadh ended a more than three-year regional embargo on Qatar, imposed in part because of Doha’s ties to Tehran. The movement was widely seen as part of Prince Muhammad efforts to gain credibility before the Biden administration.

Riyadh, which opposed the atomic deal, has said it will not hamper nuclear talks. But he wants regional powers to be involved in any discussions related to any new agreement and insists Iran’s missile program and regional activities should be addressed.

“Kadhimi has good ties to the Iranian system. The new thing is that Kadhimi is playing this role with Saudi Arabia, “said another official briefed on the talks.” It’s a good thing Iraq is playing this role, but it’s very soon. “

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, whose final term ends in August, has previously indicated that he wanted to cool hostilities with Arab rivals.

Additional reports Najmeh Bozorgmehr