FM: Iran, Saudi Arabia to set up consular offices in Jedda, Mashhad
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said on Friday following 5 rounds of talks with Saudi Arabia in Baghdad, 1st step in the restoration of ties will hopefully be the reopening of the 2 countries’ general consular offices in Jedda and Mashhad.
Amirabdollahian who is in Beirut said in a press conference that the reopening of the consular offices will enable the Iranian citizens who wish to go on pilgrimage trips to Mecca and Medina to benefit from their services, adding that both countries also agreed that negotiations to restore ties should continue.
He said that the Saudi side is not yet ready to restore normal ties with Iran, but the Islamic Republic of Iran is both ready and seriously willing to normalize ties with Saudi Arabia.
The Iranian foreign minister added, “We believe if the other side will have a serious will, normalizing of relations will take place in the very near future.”
In response to a question on Saudi Arabia’s role in recent unrests in Iran, he said, “Parallel with the political with the Saudis, security talks, too, were held and the issues will be surveyed by both sides.”
Speaking about his meetings with the secretary generals of Lebanon Hezbollah and Palestine Islamic Jihad, he said, “In my meeting with Sayyid Hassan Nasrallah we spoke about a range of issues, including Palestine, and from what I understood from my talks with Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad secretary generals, I can say aloud, that the Islamic resistance in Lebanon and the Palestinian resistance are now in their best condition.”
Amirabdollahian added, “The US and Europe took disadvantage of the incidence of death of an Iranian girl, to weaken the Islamic Republic of Iran, but they did not react at all to the obvious murder of Shirin Abu Akila, the Palestinian reporter by the Zionist regime.”
On nuclear talks with the world power to remove the sanctions, too, the foreign minister said, “We will not retreat from our stands in negotiations to terminate the sanctions, but all the same we believe diplomacy is the best way for reaching an agreement.”
He reiterated, “Our redline is the interest of the Iranian nation.”
The Iranian foreign minister also said, “Any time that the Lebanese officials will announce their readiness to receive fuel, Iran is ready for exporting it to Lebanon.”
Amirabdollahian also said that the preparations for exporting gas to a European country, too, are made and initial papers are signed.