In two interviews, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, Iran’s deputy foreign minister for Arab and African affairs, addressed two major points of contention that have made it difficult for Iran and Saudi Arabia to begin holding constructive diplomatic discussions over their regional differences.

The first incident dates back to April 2014, when Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to Iran, Abdulrahman Bin Groman Shahri, met Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani in Tehran. Rafsanjani, keen to build better relations with Saudi Arabia, shared pictures of the meeting on his personal website, including of the Saudi ambassador kissing Rafsanjani on the forehead during their greeting. The kiss caused a backlash on Twitter by Saudis.

According to Amir-Abdollahian, who spoke with Iranian paper Shargh Daily, Shahri was summoned back to Saudi Arabia. Amir-Abollahian was told by other officials that the kiss had created a controversy in Riyadh. Though Saudi Arabia's official reason was that his tenure had ended, Amir-Abdollahian did not believe it, because the ambassador had abruptly left the country with none of the usual protocols or farewell ceremonies.

Abdollahian said that after a few weeks, Riyadh proposed another ambassador, but because there were “doubts and questions” about the previous ambassador's abrupt departure, Iran was in no hurry to approve him, but did so after “normal and natural” time.