TEHRAN – Hossein Jaberi Ansari, a top aide to Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, says Iran has never opposed the idea of engaging in dialogue with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), urging the two Arab states to follow the path of diplomacy instead of warmongering. “We are waiting for a day, which […]
TEHRAN – Hossein Jaberi Ansari, a top aide to Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, says Iran has never opposed the idea of engaging in dialogue with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), urging the two Arab states to follow the path of diplomacy instead of warmongering.
“We are waiting for a day, which we think will not be too distant, when the players of the other side realize that solutions which are based on war, intensifying tensions and lobbying with foreign powers will not work,” Jaberi Ansari said in an interview with Hamshahri published on Tuesday.
“Our regional policy is improving relations with the countries of the region and expanding cooperation and positive interactions between the sides,” he remarked.
Tension between Iran and Saudi Arabia has run high in recent years and diplomatic contacts between the two countries have become very rare.
Saudi Arabia completely cut ties with Iran after a number of Iranians stormed the Saudi diplomatic missions in Tehran and Mashhad in protest to the execution of the pro-democracy cleric Nimr al-Nimr in January 2016.
Jaberi Ansari also criticized Riyadh’s war against Yemen, saying, “One of the reasons the Yemen war has not ended after three and a half years is Saudi Arabia’s policy which is based on continuous war as a tool for political purposes.”
