Iran Hails Progress In Cooperation With Saudi Arabia

(MENAFN- IANS) Tehran, May 13 (IANS) Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian has hailed the success in the expansion of cooperation between Tehran and Riyadh following their normalisation of bilateral ties.

He made the remarks on Sunday at the third Iranian-Arab Dialogue Conference in Iran's capital Tehran, which was attended by Iranian officials, foreign ambassadors, and guests from other states, Xinhua news agency reported.

Amir-Abdollahian said that Iran was determined to promote understanding and solidarity among regional countries, referring to the normalisation of Iran-Saudi Arabia relations as an example of Iran's focus on expanding ties with neighbours as well as Muslim and Arab states.

"Our assessment (of the progress) of relations between Tehran and Riyadh over the past year indicates that success has been achieved in the area of the multilayered development of bilateral cooperation," said the Iranian Foreign Minister, stressing that there are numerous opportunities for the two countries to further enhance their cooperation.

Noting that Iran has initiated a new phase of cooperation with the UAE, Qatar, Oman, and Kuwait, Amir-Abdollahian mentioned that Tehran and Bahrain are also considering advancing towards normalising bilateral relations.

Iran and Saudi Arabia formally declared in April of last year the resumption of diplomatic relations with immediate effect.

Saudi Arabia cut diplomatic ties with Iran in early 2016 in response to attacks on Saudi diplomatic missions in Iran. The attacks followed Saudi Arabia's execution of a Shia cleric.

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