Saudi Arabia’s Defence Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman has met a number of Iranian officers earlier than a second spherical of talks between Washington and Tehran over Iran’s nuclear programme.
Prince Khalid stated he conveyed a message from Saudi Arabia’s King Salman to Iranian Supreme Chief, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei throughout Thursday’s assembly in Tehran.
“We mentioned our bilateral relations and subjects of mutual curiosity,” he wrote on X.
“Our perception is that the connection between the Islamic Republic of Iran and Saudi Arabia is useful for each nations,” Iranian state media cited Khamenei as saying within the assembly on Thursday.
Prince Khalid additionally met President Masoud Pezeshkian and Iran’s armed forces chief of employees, Mohammad Bagheri.
“Ties between the Saudi and Iranian armed forces have been enhancing because the Beijing settlement,” Bagheri stated after the assembly, in keeping with Iranian state media.
Saudi Arabia has welcomed Iran’s nuclear talks with the US, saying it supported efforts to resolve regional and worldwide disputes.
Iran and Saudi Arabia agreed in a 2023 deal brokered by China to re-establish relations after years of hostility that had threatened stability and safety within the Gulf area and helped gas conflicts within the Center East from Yemen to Syria.
‘Essential stage’
The Saudi defence minister’s journey coincided with a go to to Iran by the UN nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi, who warned that the US and Iran have been working out of time to achieve a deal.
Iranian and US delegations are set to collect in Rome on Saturday for a second spherical of Omani-mediated negotiations, per week after the longtime foes held their highest-level talks since US President Donald Trump deserted a landmark nuclear accord throughout his first time period in 2018.
Since re-entering the White Home in January, Trump has revived his so-called “most stress” coverage imposing punishing financial sanctions towards Iran and threatened army motion if Tehran doesn’t conform to a deal.
“We’re in a really essential stage of those vital negotiations. We all know we don’t have a lot time, for this reason I’m right here … to facilitate this course of,” Grossi stated on Thursday.
“We’re working laborious and we need to succeed,” he instructed a joint information convention with Iran’s atomic vitality company chief Mohammad Eslami, acknowledging that the hassle to safe a deal was “not a straightforward course of”.
Requested about US President Donald Trump’s threats to assault Iran, Grossi urged folks to “consider our goal.”
“As soon as we get to our goal, all of this stuff will evaporate as a result of there shall be no cause for concern,” he stated.
In March, Trump despatched a letter to Iran’s Supreme Chief Ayatollah Ali Khamenei urging talks and warning of doable army motion if Iran refused.
Khamenei has cautioned that whereas the talks with america had began nicely, they might but show fruitless.
“The negotiations could or could not yield outcomes,” he stated on Tuesday.
Western governments have lengthy accused Iran of in search of to amass nuclear weapons functionality, an ambition Tehran has constantly denied.
For the reason that nuclear deal’s collapse in 2018, Iran has deserted all limits on its programme, and enriches uranium to as much as 60 p.c purity, close to weapons-grade ranges of 90 p.c.
Surveillance cameras put in by the IAEA have been disrupted, whereas Iran has barred a few of the Vienna-based company’s most skilled inspectors.
However regardless of the tensions between Iran and the company, its entry has not been completely revoked.