Saudi Gazette report

TEHRAN — A Saudi technical team, headed by Nasser Al-Ghannoum visited the headquarters of the Saudi embassy in Tehran on Sunday, the second day of its visit to the Iranian capital. The delegation held consultations on the mechanisms for reopening the Kingdom’s diplomatic missions in Iran.

The Saudi delegation arrived in Iran three days after a meeting between Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan and his Iranian counterpart Hossein Amir Abdollahian in Beijing. The foreign ministers had signed a memorandum of understanding to resume diplomatic relations between the two countries, nearly a month after the tripartite agreement reached between Saudi Arabia and Iran, under the mediation of China, in this respect.

The state-run Iranian ISNA news agency reported that the Saudi team reached on Sunday morning to inspect the embassy, after meeting with Mehdi Honardoust, the chief of protocol at the Iranian Foreign Ministry.

In the same vein, the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that its technical team will travel to Saudi Arabia, later this week, to inspect the Iranian embassy in Riyadh, and to prepare arrangements for the reopening of the Iranian embassy, ISNA reported.

Alireza Enayati, director general of Iran’s Foreign Ministry Office for Gulf Affairs, said that the Iranian delegation is putting the final touches on its visit to Saudi Arabia to reopen the embassy in Riyadh and the consulate in Jeddah. “We held preliminary consultations with Saudi Arabia. The Iranian team will be divided into two groups. One is in Riyadh, and the other is heading to Jeddah,” the official IRNA news agency quoted Enayati as saying.

About the date of the visit and resumption of the flight service, he said: “It is likely to be at the end of this week. Flights will resume between the two countries, according to the agreement concluded with Saudi Arabia.”

For its part, Tasnim news agency, affiliated with Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, said that the technical team will head to Saudi Arabia on Tuesday.

The first official meeting between the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia and Iran in Beijing received considerable attention from Iranian analysts and observers, particularly regarding China’s growing role in the region. Despite domestic criticism of the policy of turning to the East, Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has called for pursuing this policy to nullify the effects of US sanctions.

Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh, former Iranian parliament deputy and member of its National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, said that China is playing its own game of hegemony, in the way America has done during the last 100 years to be present in the international arena. “Both China and Saudi Arabia are counting the achievements of the tripartite agreement but unfortunately Iran did not properly pave the way for gaining achievements from this agreement. Saudis acted pragmatically in increasing the shares of their large companies, and moved towards ending the Yemen issue, but nothing happened on the part of Iran,” he said while noting, “the weakness of the political agreements is due to the lack of economic support.” However, Falahatpisheh, who is close to the reformists, believed that the tripartite agreement was reached in a suitable political climate.

News websites critical of the current government’s policy of distancing itself from the nuclear agreement continued to assert that the success of the agreement with Saudi Arabia, especially in the economic aspect, depends on reviving the nuclear agreement.

For its part, the Jamaran news website quoted international affairs analyst Ali Bigdeli as saying: “We are forced to solve the problem of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action in some way, and Saudi Arabia cannot invest in Iran without the nuclear agreement. There is no other way to revive our dying economy, and it is getting worse, every day, with the appreciation of the currency and the severe economic problems we face,” he said while noting that people are in a dilemma as there is no way to solve it, and that Russia cannot revive Iranian economy in any way.

Regarding the possibility of commercial exchanges with Saudi Arabia, even in the absence of any agreement with regard to the nuclear issue, he said: “There may be superficial exchanges, but they are not important. It is important that our relations be with a country by which we can organize our failed economy,” he added.

On its part, Donya-e-Eqtesad newspaper highlighted major trade cooperation areas between Tehran and Riyadh, which has been circulated in Iranian circles since the announcement of the resumption of relations. “The latest reports showed that there is high potential for attracting capital in various fields of industry, mining, tourism and agriculture in Iran. There are also interests for Saudi businessmen in mineral products, medical tourism in Iran and Iranian tourism, in addition to the ability to enter Saudi food products to Iran, besides the plenty of Saudi investment opportunities,” the website pointed out.