Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as well as Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud in Riyadh on Wednesday during his first visit to the kingdom since he assumed the post last August. The visit comes as the specter of an Israel-Iran war grows. 

Araghchi arrived Wednesday on the first leg of a regional tour, according to the Saudi Press Agency. Araghchi's first visit to Saudi Arabia as foreign minister comes as Riyadh grows increasingly concerned over potential blowback from an imminent Israeli strike on Iran following Tehran's retaliatory missile attack on Israel last week for the killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut along with Abbas Nilforoushan, deputy commander of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Operations.

During Araghchi's meeting with Crown Prince Mohammed, the two “expressed their shared satisfaction over the continuing positive trend in bilateral relations and underlined the need for further promotion of bilateral cooperation,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei wrote on X. 

Araghchi also held one-on-one talks with Prince Faisal to discuss the latest developments in the region, with a focus on Gaza and Lebanon. The two foreign ministers “stressed that war on Gaza and Lebanon must stop and humanitarian assistance must be allowed to be provided to refugees and displaced persons immediately,” according to Baghaei.