TEHRAN – An Iranian lawmaker has quoted the Iranian foreign minister as saying that Iran and Saudi Arabia have totally agreed to reopen their diplomatic missions.

The lawmaker, Abolfazl Amouei, provided details about a briefing meeting held on Monday in which Hossein Amir Abdollahian briefed lawmakers on a number of foreign affairs. 

Amouei said the briefing addressed the latest developments related to Iran’s diplomacy, particularly with neighboring countries. In this meeting, Amir Abdollahian also offered details on the Saudi-Iranian normalization. 

“In this meeting, the head of the diplomatic service discussed the process of resuming relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia as an indicator of strengthening regional cooperation in the 13th government,” Amouei told IRNA. 

He added, “In addition to the bilateral and political aspect of this relationship, including discussing the resumption of the Umrah and the full establishment of embassies and consulates, we are also interested in strengthening the economic perspective of the agreement between the two Islamic countries.”

He noted, “In this meeting, the Minister of Foreign Affairs reviewed the process of international and regional developments and said that the world is moving towards the multiplicity of effective actors and the rise of regional powers and that with the change of the international order, the application of American hegemony in different regions of the world, including our region, has faced a fundamental challenge.”

Amouei continued, “Amir Abdollahian pointed to strengthening the role of multilateral institutions in the cooperation of southern countries, including the cooperation of Shanghai and BRICS in the world. And he expressed his gratitude for the quick approval of the membership documents of the Islamic Republic of Iran in the Shanghai Organization in the parliament and expressed his hope that Iran's complete and definitive membership will be announced at the July meeting of this organization in Delhi.”

According to Amouei, in this meeting, 11 lawmakers expressed their views on matters related to the responsibility of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, including the conditions of Iranian students abroad, Tehran-Baku relations, the conditions of the axis of resistance, the demands of the Islamic Republic of Iran in foreign countries, and border waters. 

A senior Iranian lawmaker said in late April that preparations for reopening the embassy of Iran and Saudi Arabia were underway, noting that the two countries would name ambassadors.

Vahid Jalalzadeh, who is the head of the Iranian Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, implied that thaw in Iran-Saudi relations is part of the Raisi administration’s “neighborhood policy.”

“The policy of strengthening relations with neighbors has been followed well by the government. So far, we have established a balanced relationship with the majority of our neighbors in Central Asia, in the Persian Gulf and in the east of the country,” Jalalzadeh said in remarks to Mehr News. “Many of the problems we had with some countries in Central Asia have been resolved in the 13th government, and we are now in a good relationship with these countries.”

He added, “The government's recent policy in de-escalating tensions with some countries in the Persian Gulf region, including the UAE, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia, has been a good policy. Of course, we expect this approach to be exploited in the economic and political fields.”

Commenting on the latest developments regarding the reopening of embassies of Iran and Saudi Arabia, Jalalzadeh said, “In order to activate the embassies and representatives of the two countries, a series of measures and preparations are necessary, which are being carried out, and then the exchange of ambassadors of the two countries will take place.”