DUBAI (Reuters) -The Iranian and Saudi foreign ministers are expected to meet in Iraq soon, an Iranian lawmaker told the semi-official Fars news agency on Tuesday, a move that would be seen as a step to ease tensions across the Middle East between the regional foes.
Iran’s foreign ministry was not immediately available to comment.
“Iranian’s Hossein Amirabdollahian and Saudi Arabia’s Faisal bin Farhan will meet in Iraq soon to discuss issues like the reopening of embassies and regional matters such as the Yemen crisis,” Iranian lawmaker Javad Karimi Qoddusi told Fars, without elaborating.
Predominantly Sunni Muslim Saudi Arabia and Shi’ite Iran, locked in proxy conflicts across the Middle East, started direct talks last year to try to contain tensions.
A fifth round of talks between the regional rivals was held in April in Baghdad, which Tehran described as “positive”.
Riyadh severed ties with Tehran in 2016 after Iranian protesters stormed the Saudi embassy in the Iranian capital following the execution of a Shi’ite cleric in Saudi Arabia.
(Writing by Parisa Hafezi, Editing by William Maclean)
