Saudi Gazette report

THE Kingdom on Friday refuted Iranian claim that Riyadh approached Tehran requesting its mediation with Houthi rebels in Yemen.

Reports carried by Iranian News Agency (IRNA) quoting Hossein Amir Abdollahian, senior adviser to the speaker of the Iranian parliament, made this claim which is totally baseless and unfounded, Director of Media Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Osama Ahmed Nugali, said in a statement to Saudi Press Agency (SPA).

The Houthis regularly conduct military incursions inside Saudi Arabia and fire rockets across the Kingdom’s southern border.

Since March 2015, Saudi Arabia has led a coalition of states in the Yemen civil war and blames Iran for arming the Houthis.

In an interview with Der Spiegel magazine last week, Iranian Vice President Ali Akbar Salehi claimed his country’s readiness to help Saudi Arabia to resolve Yemen war.

Salehi, who also heads his country’s Atomic Energy Organization, elaborated the benefits of cooperation between Tehran and Riyadh and said, ‘Look at it rationally; If we have a good relationship with Saudi Arabia, we benefit on many levels, economically and in trade.

In a recent report, Kuwaiti daily Al Jareeda claimed that a Saudi diplomatic delegation was set to go to Iran to assess damages to the Kingdom’s diplomatic missions in Tehran and Mashhad.

The delegation, the report said, was initially scheduled to fly to Tehran two months ago, but the visit was postponed over differences between the Saudis and the Iranians regarding the program of the delegation and the meetings it would have with Iranian officials.

The Saudis had expressed their anger over the slow pace of the Iranians in arranging the visas for the delegation members, it added.