Saudi Arabia, Iran held direct talks in bid to ease tensions
Talks between the two countries were organized by Iraq's Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi.
Top officials from Saudi Arabia and Iran held talks in Baghdad earlier this month in a bid to ease tensions between the regional rivals.
The talks, first reported by the Financial Times, are thought to be the first direct discussions since Riyadh and Tehran severed diplomatic ties in 2016. They also come as the US administration under President Joe Biden renews a diplomatic push to end Yemen’s civil war and seeks to return to the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran.
Though the talks held in Baghdad on April 9 were described as positive, no clear outcome was achieved, according to Reuters. One Iranian official described talks as “low-level” and exploratory.
The two sides discussed Yemen’s Houthis targeting Saudi territory with what the United States says is Iranian weapons technology. They also discussed the ongoing political crisis in Lebanon amid that country’s financial collapse.
