“MOVING IN RIGHT DIRECTION”
Long at odds, Iran and Saudi Arabia, respectively the two leading Shi’ite and Sunni Muslim powers in the Middle East, have backed opposite sides in proxy wars from Yemen to Syria and elsewhere.
Analysts say both sides stand to benefit from de-escalation, as Iran seeks to undercut US efforts to isolate it in the region and Saudi Arabia tries to focus on economic development.
Fellow Gulf states the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait welcomed restored Saudi-Iranian ties, as did Iraq, Egypt and Turkey.
“Further regional instability is not in Saudi or Iranian interest at the moment,” said Kristian Coates Ulrichsen, a political scientist at Rice University’s Baker Institute in the United States.
“And for the Chinese to have addressed this at a time when the US stance toward Iran is becoming more hawkish sends a powerful signal in itself.”
Saudi foreign minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, in remarks carried by state television, said Riyadh “favoured political solutions and dialogue”.
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian hinted at more to come.
“The neighborhood policy, as the key axis of the Iranian government’s foreign policy, is strongly moving in the right direction and the diplomatic apparatus is actively behind the preparation of more regional steps,” Amirabdollahian wrote on Twitter.
A senior Iranian official said addressing tensions with Saudi Arabia had become a top priority for Tehran and would help resolve long-running talks on Iran’s nuclear program.
“It will encourage the West to reach a nuclear agreement with Iran,” the official told Reuters.
Saudi Arabia and its allies have long pressed global powers to address their fears about Iran’s missile and drone programs in their efforts to revive a 2015 nuclear agreement with Tehran.
Cinzia Bianco, research fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said Riyadh had been seeking security guarantees from the Iranians.
Iran may also have responded positively to Riyadh’s calls for it to “actively push the Houthis to sign a peace agreement with Saudi Arabia that frees the Saudis from the Yemen war which has become a quagmire,” Bianco said.
“If those two (issues) are in place I am confident and positive about the deal.”
Prince Faisal said in January progress was being made towards ending the Yemen conflict, and on Friday Houthis in Yemen and Iran-allied Hezbollah in Lebanon welcomed the agreement.
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