The King of Saudi Arabia officially invites the President of Iran to visit the country

Faisal bin Farhan, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Saudi Arabia, received his Iranian counterpart Hossein Amir Abdolahian in Riyadh in a meeting framed within the latest political movements orchestrated between the Saudi kingdom and the Islamic Republic of Iran to complete the normalization of relations between the two countries.

The meeting was very favorable and the positions between two countries that have staged strong political clashes in recent years due to various political disagreements were brought even closer. Especially since the Arab country broke off diplomatic relations with the Persian nation in 2016 due to the attacks suffered by Saudi diplomatic delegations on Iranian territory that occurred in response to the process that was carried out against an important Shiite cleric in the Kingdom.

After the meeting between Faisal bin Farhan and Hossein Amir Abdolahian, it was noted that the King of Saudi Arabia, Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud, has invited the President of Iran, Ebrahim Raisi, for an official visit to the Saudi kingdom, as confirmed by the foreign ministers of both nations at a press conference. Which would mean a very important step in the normalization of relations between the two countries since it would be a meeting at the highest level between the two states.

Saudi Arabia expects this visit of Ebrahim Raisi to the country to take place after the invitation of the Saudi monarch and Hosein Amir Abdolahian himself acknowledged that the Iranian president expects to travel to the Kingdom on an official visit soon.

Hossein Amir Abdolahian and Faisal bin Farhan stressed the importance of security cooperation, and the Iranian minister advocated talks with Arab neighbors to favor “stability” and “internal and regional security.”

An important challenge is to achieve greater security in the Middle East and avoid confrontations. And if these two countries work in that direction after normalizing relations then the situation will improve in the area. “We believe that the idea of achieving security and development in the region is an idea that cannot be fragmented,” the Iranian foreign minister noted.

This aspect is of utmost relevance since Saudi Arabia and Iran have staged numerous diplomatic clashes since the rupture of relations and also due to the ideological confrontation derived from the confrontation that sometimes emerges between two opposing branches of Islam such as the Sunni and the Shiite. Saudi Arabia is the great banner of the Sunni version, while the Islamic Republic represents the Shiite branch of the Muslim religion. Precisely, various analysts have been pointing out during these years to the Ayatollahs regime for using related Shiite political and armed groups to interfere in the internal affairs of other states in the region such as the Houthi rebels in the framework of the Yemen war, Hamas in Palestine or Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Regarding other collateral issues, Prince Faisal bin Farhan also thanked the Iranian support for Saudi Arabia's candidacy to host the 2030 Universal Exhibition, which coincides with the goal set for that year of the Saudi kingdom's Vision 2030 program that has been focused for years on diversifying the national economy so as not to depend totally on hydrocarbons, the country's main source of income. Saudi Arabia has been seeking for years to strengthen and develop various economic sectors in order to have other ways to generate money and favor the evolution of other activities in the country, such as tourism, new technologies, various industrial sectors or even sports, all under the leadership of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud.

Strengthening contacts towards the normalization of relations