Saudi Arabia 'sent messages to' Iran's President Rouhani

'If Saudi Arabia is really pursuing a change of behaviour, Iran welcomes that,' said a spokesperson for Tehran

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. AP

Saudi Arabia sent messages to Iran's President Hassan Rouhani through the leaders of other countries, Iranian media has reported.

"Messages from the Saudis were presented to (President) Hassan Rouhani from the leaders of some countries," spokesperson for the Iranian government Ali Rabiei said, according to the semi-official ILNA news agency.

"If Saudi Arabia is really pursuing a change of behaviour, Iran welcomes that."

Mr Rabiei did not give any information on what the messages contained, but he also said that the country is ready for dialogue with Saudi Arabia if the war in Yemen was to come to an end.

On Sunday, Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman said during an interview aired on CBS’s 60 Minutes that war between his country and Iran would lead to a “total collapse of the global economy” and should be avoided.

The prince said a “political and peaceful solution is much better than the military one”.

“Oil prices will jump to unimaginably high numbers that we haven’t seen in our lifetimes,” he said of any war. Still, the world needed to take “strong and firm action to deter Iran” or see further escalations.

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