Tehran ‘looking to open a new page in ties with Gulf’

AFP

Doha

Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohamed Javad Zarif yesterday appealed to Saudi Arabia to work with Tehran toward achieving regional “stability”, as he pressed a tour seeking to expand ties with Gulf Arab states.

Zarif arrived in Doha after visits to Kuwait and Oman for meetings aimed at assuring top officials that a deal Iran secured with world powers on its disputed nuclear programme is in their interest.

During his stopover in the Omani capital Muscat, Zarif called on Saudi Arabia to jointly work with Iran to resolve regional issues.

“I believe that our relations with Saudi Arabia should expand as we consider Saudi Arabia as an extremely important country in the region and the Islamic world,” Zarif told AFP.

“We believe that Iran and Saudi Arabia should work together in order to promote peace and stability in the region.”

Zarif also praised Oman’s role in last month’s negotiations between Iran and world powers, including the US, that paved the way for the landmark nuclear deal.

“We expressed our appreciation for the very central and positive role that the sultanate had played in facilitating these talks,” Zarif said after he met with Sultan Qaboos.

Later in Qatar, Zarif held talks with HH the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, the official Qatar News Agency (QNA) news agency reported.

They “discussed bilateral relations and means of developing them as well as matters of mutual interest”, said QNA.

The nuclear deal reached in Geneva on November 24 was welcomed by the Gulf Arab states.

The Saudi government said the deal could mark the first step towards a comprehensive solution for Iran’s nuclear programme, “if there are good intentions”.

Zarif yesterday again voiced hopes to “soon” visit Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, whose foreign minister announced during a visit to Tehran last week that his government was ready to create a joint economic commission with Iran.

“I am ready to go to Saudi Arabia, but it is just a matter of being able to arrange a mutually convenient time. I will visit it soon inshallah (God willing).”

Gulf Co-operation Council foreign ministers, meeting in Kuwait City last week, expressed hopes that the interim deal would lead to a permanent agreement on Iran’s nuclear programme.

The GCC includes Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates.

After his election in July, Iran’s President Hassan Rohani said he wanted to improve relations with neighbouring countries, especially Gulf states.

Zarif said in Kuwait City, the first stop in his tour, that Iran was looking to open a new page in relations with the Gulf.

He reiterated his calls in Oman.

“We feel that relations between countries in the region must be built on mutual trust and friendly ties must be strengthened,” Oman News Agency quoted him as saying.

Iran was “not planning to deceive the world”, added Zarif.

British envoy’s visit ‘to consolidate thaw in relations’

Britain’s new envoy to Tehran, Ajay Sharma, is to visit Iran today for the first time to try to consolidate a thaw in ties which were severed in 2011. Sharma’s Iranian counterpart, Hassan Habibollah-Zadeh, announced the visit in remarks carried by the official Irna news agency and the report was confirmed by Britain’s Foreign Secretary William Hague.  Habibollah-Zadeh told Irna yesterday that he would also be travelling to London. “As the first step, the British non-resident charge d’affaires Ajay Sharma arrives today in Tehran along with a delegation to visit British diplomatic buildings and hold talks with foreign ministry officials,” he said.