March-March 2023
They were “difficult and complex” talks, with these words Hossein Amir Abdollahian, Iranian Foreign Minister, described his country’s negotiations with Saudi Arabia, in which the two parties reached last Friday in Beijing to sign an agreement allowing for the restoration of relations between them after six years of estrangement and conflict.
It is not surprising that this agreement gives a strong impetus to establish peace and stability, not only in Saudi-Iranian relations, but also in the entire Middle East region, if we know that what made the negotiations “difficult and complicated” during the last two years of negotiating rounds that took place under Iraqi-Omani mediation is the desire Riyadh is clear that it is not limited to the restoration of diplomatic relations with Tehran, and its keenness to link it to a comprehensive agreement for peace in the region, especially in sensitive files in which the latter exercises influential influence, such as Yemen, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and others. Therefore, the Beijing Declaration was not limited to talking about normalization and the return of diplomatic relations between the two sides, but included a reference to the need to adhere to “mutual respect between the two countries, commitment to good neighborliness, respect for national sovereignty, and non-interference in internal affairs or influence on them.”
