ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi “welcomed“ an invitation from Saudi Arabia’s King Salman to visit the kingdom a week after the two countries decided to restore ties, an Iranian official said on Sunday.
Mohammad Jamshidi, Raisi’s deputy chief of staff for political affairs tweeted that the Saudi King had sent a letter to the Iranian president, welcoming the deal between Riyadh and Tehran, and inviting him to visit.
“Raisi welcomed the invitation and stressed Iran’s readiness to expand cooperation,” he added.
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian on Sunday told reporter that Iran and Saudi Arabia had agreed to hold a meeting between their top envoys without specifying the location.
Iran and Saudi Arabia announced on March 11 that they had signed a China-brokered deal of reconciliation. The deal is set to restore diplomatic ties between the two countries, with their embassies expected to open within two months.
There has been no confirmation by Saudi Arabia of the letter or invitation.
The Sunni kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Shiite-majority Iran have had rocky relations since 1979, when Shiite revolutionaries came to power in Iran and pledged to export their revolution to the world, including Gulf countries.
Diplomatic ties were cut in 2016 when Iranian protestors attacked Saudi diplomatic missions in retaliation to the Sunni kingdom's execution of Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr.
Both nations have also supported opposing forces in several conflict zones across the region, most notably in Yemen, where Iran backs the Houthi rebels while Saudi Arabia leads a military coalition supporting the government.
