Rouhani stresses enhancement of Iran- Saudi ties

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani called for the further expansion of bilateral relations between Tehran and Riyadh. “Saudi Arabia is a brotherly and friendly country which shares a great deal of interests with Iran,” President Rouhani said, addressing a group of Iranian Hajj officials. “This issue has been highlighted both in a congratulatory letter from Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud to me and in my reply letter to him, and both sides are ready to eliminate minor tensions to guarantee the mutual interests and those of the Muslim world,” the Iranian president added. Earlier this year, Rouhani underlined Tehran’s policy of good relations with all the neighboring states, and said his government will make more efforts to promote ties with the Persian Gulf littoral states, specially Saudi Arabia. "The Persian Gulf region and the Arab countries are important strategically. The Persian Gulf littoral states are our neighbors and brothers, but Saudi Arabia in addition to being our brother and neighbor hosts the Muslim Kiblah and we have highly close cultural, historical and regional ties with each other," Rouhani said in June in response to a question about the prospects of the relations between Tehran and Riyadh in his administration. He said the visit to Mecca for the Hajj pilgrimage by hundreds of thousands of Iranians each year provides a very proper ground for the two countries to enhance their interactions and cooperation. Rouhani also pointed out that the first security agreement between Iran and Saudi Arabia was endorsed by him in the year 1998, and expressed the hope that his administration would establish excellent ties with Saudi Arabia and other neighboring countries. “The foreign policy priority of (my) government is having friendly and close relations with all neighbors. We will have very close relations with our 15 neighboring countries which will include good neighborliness, friendship and reciprocal relations based on mutual respect and interests,” he added. In relevant remarks earlier this year, former Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said The relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia are growing in different fields, and stressed that the two Muslim states will soon open a new chapter in their bilateral relations. “God-willing, a new chapter will be opened in Iran and Saudi Arabia's bilateral relations to resolve the existing difference between the two countries,” Salehi said. “God-willing, the relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia will improve in different aspects,” he added.