As Saudi Arabia and Iran held talks in Amman aimed at easing tensions between the regional rivals, a Saudi diplomat accused Tehran on Monday of “playing games” in negotiations with Riyadh.
According to Jordan’s state news agency Petra, Saudi Arabia and Iran took part in a “security dialogue” hosted in the Jordanian capital by the Arab Institute for Security Studies. The talks, which covered Iran’s nuclear program and wrapped up on Monday, took place in “an atmosphere of mutual respect,” the report cites the institute’s head, Ayman Khalil, as saying.
The two regional powerhouses severed relations in 2016 after Saudi Arabia’s execution of a prominent Shiite Muslim cleric was met with violent protests at Saudi diplomatic facilities in Iran. Tensions between Shiite Iran and Saudi Arabia’s Sunni monarchy have continued, with the two countries fighting in proxy wars across the Middle East, including in Yemen and Syria.
Saudi Arabia and Iran held direct talks earlier this year in Baghdad, as publicly confirmed by Iraqi President Barham Salih in May and later by Riyadh and Tehran. In September, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Saeed Khatibzadeh said that “remarkable progress” had been made in resolving the tensions.
But on Monday, Saudi Ambassador to the UN Abdallah Al-Mouallimi played down the diplomatic thaw and accused Tehran of “playing games” with Riyadh.
“There have been talks in Baghdad under the auspices of the Iraqi government, but no major results have been achieved there," he told the English-language Arab News.
“The Iranians take a long-term attitude toward these talks,” Al-Mouallimi said. “We are not interested in talks for the sake of talks or for the sake of photo opportunities.”
The talks come as US President Joe Biden seeks to rejoin the landmark Iranian nuclear accord abandoned by his predecessor in 2018. Saudi Arabia and several Gulf states opposed the original 2015 deal, which offered Iran sanctions relief in exchange for limits on its nuclear activities.
This weekend, Iran’s chief negotiator Ali Bagheri Kani said that progress had been made in the latest round of nuclear talks in Vienna, but that “several points of difference” between Iran and world powers remain.
