TEHRAN- Saudi Arabia’s consulate general in Mashhad, Iran’s northeastern metropolis, has formally opened its doors, months after the two nations agreed to reestablish diplomatic relations under an agreement brokered by China.

Mohammad Beheshti Monfared, director of the Iranian Foreign Ministry representative office in Khorasan Razavi, said on Sunday that the temporary headquarters for the mission was a hotel in the shrine city of Mashhad.

He stated that Saudi Arabia’s consulate general in Mashhad declared the restart of operations on August 13 in a formal note delivered to the representative office.

The Saudi embassy in Tehran has also formally started operations, in response to Tehran’s re-opening of its embassy in Riyadh in June.

Alireza Enayati, a seasoned diplomat, was named Iran’s ambassador to Saudi Arabia in May.

In June, Tehran also reopened its embassies in Riyadh and Jeddah.

On March 10, seven years after official relations were cut, Iran and Saudi Arabia agreed to restore diplomatic ties and reopen embassies following several days of strenuous discussions hosted by China. Prior to the March 10 agreement, Iran and Saudi Arabia had held five rounds of talks hosted by Iraq.

Following the agreement, Tehran and Riyadh issued a joint statement emphasizing the need to respect one another’s national sovereignty and refrain from meddling in one another’s internal affairs.

They also agreed to implement an agreement reached in May 1998 to increase economic, commercial, investment, technological, scientific, cultural, sports, and youth affairs cooperation as well as a security interaction agreement inked in April 2001.

In June, a Kuwaiti newspaper reported that Saudi Arabia is mulling a plan to connect its railway to Iran.

In a report, the Al-Jarida newspaper quoted a source close to the Saudi government as saying that Riyadh will examine plans to connect its territory to Iran’s railway through Kuwait and Basra in Iraq. 

The source had spoken to a senior journalist working for the French newspaper Le Figaro and had cited information given by Saudi authorities during a recent Saudi-French investment forum in France. 

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian and his Saudi counterpart Prince Faisal bin Farhan met in the Iranian capital on June 17, nearly three months after Tehran and Riyadh decided to rebuild their ties.

In his meeting with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi on the same date, the Saudi foreign minister welcomed the thaw in Tehran-Riyadh relations and said, “We are in a golden stage that we should appreciate, and cooperation with the Islamic Republic of Iran provides the opportunity to benefit from these conditions for the two sides and the region.”

Prince Faisal also said the Saudi king has ordered the formation of various working groups to boost relations with Iran. 

He underlined Saudi Arabia’s efforts to upgrade relations with Iran to a strategic level. 

“Economic, development and cultural cooperation is on the agenda of Tehran and Riyadh,” he said.

On July 21, the Iranian Ambassador to Iraq, Mohammad Kazem Al Sadeq, hailed the Iran-Saudi deal as “strategic,” saying that the region needs stability.

The Iranian ambassador made the remarks in a meeting with his Saudi counterpart in Baghdad hosted by the Iraqi Foundation of Foreign Policies. The meeting was also attended by a number of Iraqi politicians. 

In the meeting, the ambassadors of Iran and Saudi Arabia emphasized the seriousness of the two countries in implementing the Tehran-Riyadh agreement and helping to reduce tension in the region, according to IRNA. 

The Iranian ambassador appreciated Iraq as the main actor in the agreement between Tehran and Riyadh and emphasized that Iraq has become an important gate to bring closer the views of Iran and Arab countries.