Iran says talks with Saudi Arabia ‘positive’

The visit to Riyadh by Iran's deputy foreign minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian is the first by a senior Iranian official since president Hassan Rouhani took office.

Iran’s deputy foreign minister said he had held a “positive and constructive” meeting with Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister in Riyadh on Tuesday as the two rivals seek to counter Islamist militants in Iraq.

Hossein Amir Abdollahian’s visit is the first by a senior Iranian official for talks with the kingdom since the moderate president Hassan Rouhani was elected last summer and pledged to improve Tehran’s frosty relations with its Arab neighbours.

Saudi official media had not reported on Mr Abdollahian’s arrival or his talks with Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al Faisal, a sign of the heightened sensitivities surrounding ties between two of the Middle East’s most intractable foes.

“The meeting took place in a very positive and constructive atmosphere,” Mr Abdollahian told Reuters.

Iranian media reported that Mr Abdollahian’s visit was to discuss “matters of common interest”.

“It is a step towards improving relations between Tehran and Riyadh,” Iran’s financial daily Donya-e Eghtessad wrote.

Mr Abdollahian had visited Riyadh in June, but that was for a meeting of the Saudi-based Organisation for Islamic Cooperation.

Saudi officials had earlier this year invited the Iranian foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, but he declined, citing the continuing negotiations between Iran and world powers on Tehran’s controversial nuclear programme, which western and Arab nations fear is aimed at developing atomic weapons.

Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shiite Iran back opposing sides in wars and political struggles in Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Lebanon and Bahrain, usually along sectarian lines, and vie for influence across the Middle East.

However, both Tehran and Riyadh were aghast at the rapid advances made by Islamic State in June and July and welcomed the departure of Iraqi prime minister Nouri Al Maliki this month.

Mr Al Maliki was a close political ally of Iran but the country’s leaders came to see him as a liability after many Sunni Iraqis backed the revolt led by Islamic State.

He was seen in Riyadh as being too close to Iran, and the Saudi King Abdullah believed the outgoing prime minister had failed to fulfil promises he made to rein in the power of Shiite militias that targeted Sunnis.

However, Saudi Arabia officials remain wary of the incoming Iraqi prime minister Haider Al Abadi, who is from the same political bloc as Mr Al Maliki, analysts in the kingdom say, and continue to oppose what they see as Iranian interference in Arab countries.

* Reuters with additional reporting by Agence France-Presse