Saudi, Iranian Foreign Ministers Agree to Resume Flights After Beijing Meeting
Reopening of embassies, closed since 2016, also being hammered out after China brokered deal to restore relations between the rivals
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia—Saudi Arabia and Iran agreed to restore flights between their countries and resume government and private-sector visits, after their top diplomats met in Beijing on Thursday as a thaw begins in one of the Middle East’s thorniest rivalries.
The summit comes weeks after the two governments agreed to re-establish diplomatic relations in a deal brokered by China, which ended seven years of estrangement and jolted the geopolitics of this oil-rich region.
A joint statement said Saudi Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud and Iran’s Hossein Amir-Abdollahian also agreed to begin preparations for reopening embassies and consulates, which were closed in 2016 after protesters angry at the kingdom’s execution of a prominent Shiite cleric attacked the Saudi Embassy in Tehran and its consulate in the city of Mashhad.
The foreign ministers met for just under an hour, according to Saudi state television, which broadcast a brief exchange they shared in front of reporters. After Mr. Amir-Abdollahian complained about the flight time between Beijing and Tehran, Prince Faisal responded: “The flight between Riyadh and Tehran only takes two hours.” Prince Faisal invited Mr. Amir-Abdollahian to visit Riyadh.
The two countries, separated by the waters of the Persian Gulf, have been divided for decades by longstanding security and sectarian tensions that have fueled their competition for regional dominance.
China’s surprise role in hammering out the detente accelerated a geopolitical realignment in the Middle East, as rivalries that erupted during the Arab Spring fade and outside powers besides the U.S. vie for influence. It also signals a new chapter in competition between Washington and Beijing.
The deal takes on some of the most sensitive issues between two countries, including Iranian support for Houthi rebels in Yemen. In the weeks since it was announced, Saudi Arabia has also neared an agreement to restore diplomatic ties with Syria, which embraced Iran over the past decade of civil war. Those negotiations were mediated by Russia, leaving the U.S. on the sidelines of another major development in the Middle East.
In an unannounced visit to Saudi Arabia earlier this week, CIA Director William Burns expressed frustration with the Saudis, according to people familiar with the matter. He told Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman that the U.S. has felt blindsided by Riyadh’s rapprochement with Iran and Syria—countries that remain heavily sanctioned by the West—under the auspices of Washington’s global rivals.
A U.S. official said Mr. Burns discussed cooperation on intelligence and counterterrorism with Saudi officials.
Thursday’s meeting between the Saudi and Iranian foreign ministers is a precursor to a high-level summit of Gulf Arab leaders and Iranian officials that Chinese leader Xi Jinping has proposed to host later this year. Iranian state-run news agency IRNA said Tehran appointed an ambassador to the United Arab Emirates for the first time in seven years.
Other high-level talks are also in the works. Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has accepted a Saudi invitation to visit the kingdom, people familiar with the matter said. No date for the visit has been announced.
It would be Mr. Raisi’s first official trip to the kingdom. Previous Iranian presidents and Saudi kings have made similar visits during previous periods of warming relations.
For Tehran, the move to improve ties with Riyadh eases the international isolation it has faced since antigovernment protests last fall and the collapse of talks aimed at restoring a 2015 international nuclear deal dashed its hopes of relief from economic sanctions.
Its rapprochement with Riyadh helps Tehran with its longstanding goal of diminishing U.S. influence in the Middle East, drawing one of Washington’s closest partners away from its orbit and bringing China into a more active diplomatic role in the region.
Unlike the U.S., which doesn’t have formal diplomatic relations with Iran, China has close diplomatic and economic ties with both Tehran and Riyadh. It is Iran’s biggest trade partner and a leading buyer of oil from Saudi Arabia, giving it leverage with both sides.