Iranian, Saudi Foreign Ministers Meet In Beijing, Agree Bilateral Steps
The foreign ministers of Iran and Saudi Arabia met in Beijing for the first formal meeting in more than seven years, after a China-brokered deal to restore ties.
The foreign ministers of Iran and Saudi Arabia met in Beijing for the first formal meeting in more than seven years, after a China-brokered deal to restore ties.
Iran’s official news agency IRNA reported that a meeting of the two delegations took place and they issued a joint statement “on expanding relations and cooperation.”
Tasnim news agency affiliated with the Iran’s Revolutionary Guard reported that Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and his Saudi counterpart Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud discussed practical measures related to the re-opening of their embassies and consulates. They also exchanged views, Tasnim said, on “certain issues related to their bilateral relations,” without providing details.
Reuters reported that the two countries agreed to resume flights and bilateral visits of official and private sector delegations, in addition to facilitating visas for citizens, the statement said.
After years of hostility that fueled conflicts across the Middle East, Tehran and Riyadh agreed to end their diplomatic rift and re-open embassies in a major deal facilitated by China last month.
In brief footage broadcast on Iranian state TV on Thursday, bin Farhan and Amir-Abdollahian, greet each other before sitting down side by side.
In March, China's President Xi Jinping helped broker a surprise deal between regional rivals Tehran and Riyadh to end a seven-year rift and restore diplomatic ties - a display of China's growing influence in the region.
In March, Xi spoke by phone with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud about several issues.
Beijing's role in the breakthrough between Tehran and Riyadh shook up dynamics in the Middle East, where the United States was for decades the main mediator.
Iran’s regime that is shunned by the West and isolated politically and under US sanctions has heralded the revival of ties with Riyadh as a significant victory and a defeat for the United States in the region.
Critics in the US have blamed the Biden Administration for pushing Saudi Arabia toward China and restoring relations with Iran, by pursuing the restoration of the 2015 nuclear deal with Tehran and losing the trust of Saudi leaders as the great power in the region.
Saudi Arabia cut ties with Iran in 2016 after its embassy in Tehran was stormed by mob of hardliners supporters of the regime during a dispute between the two countries over Riyadh's execution of a Shi'ite Muslim cleric.
The kingdom then asked Iranian diplomats to leave within 48 hours while it evacuated its embassy staff from Tehran.
The relationship began worsening a year earlier, after Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates intervened in the Yemen war, where the Iran-aligned Houthi movement ousted a Saudi-backed government and took over the capital, Sanaa.
For Saudi Arabia, the deal could mean improved security. The kingdom has blamed Iran for arming the Houthis, who carried out missile and drone attacks on its cities and oil facilities.
In 2019, Riyadh blamed a massive attack on Aramco oil facilities, which knocked out half of its oil output, directly on the Islamic Republic. Tehran denied those allegations.
With reporting by Reuters
The news comes amid reports of the cultural icon’s sense of hopelessness in the face of the country’s dire political and economic situation having led to his death.
Pour-Ahmad had described the popular protests that started last September as “bloody and painful” and wrote: “With all the scorching we have on our souls, what festival, what festivity?”
Initially, reports had claimed Pour-Ahmad died of a heart failure, but the Iranian magazine, Today’s Film, reported that he ended his life because of “depression, despair, the feeling of uselessness and lack of hope in future. Simply so terrible, unbelievable, horrible and shocking,” citing sources close to the star.
The verdict of the 74-year-old’s suicide was ruled by Mehdi Fallahmiri, the prosecutor in northern Gilan Province, who initially dispatched a murder investigation team on hearing the news of Pour-Ahmad's death.
Though the suicided was confirmed, Fallahmiri said “further investigation” is needed. The body has been transferred to the coroner’s office.
Unconfirmed reports say that he left an eight-page letter explaining his decision. However, the content of the note has not been disclosed.
Mehdi Kouhian, an attorney who has been close to the legal cases of detained artists during recent protests recently warned of the toll the unrest and subsequent crackdowns on the cultural community were having in a chilling foreboding of the fate of Pour-Ahmad.
Just days ago, he publicly recommended that the community of artists should help those who were being persecuted by the government by providing secure therapy services.
In a tweet Thursday, he said: “As a result of close contacts I had with dissident artists in the past seven months, I warned less than a month ago about their psychological condition.”
The veteran filmmaker was not a revolutionary and once admitted that before the 1979 revolution he had a beard, but when he saw protesters burning a bookstore, he shaved it off.
Although he was not an outspoken critic of the regime, like some other famous artists who have been jailed, he had become critical of the clerical regime’s intrusion into artistic works.
He had spoken out against censorship and Iran’s annual Fajr Film Festival, where the government increasingly intervenes to ban films it deems “unsuitable”.
Some have already labeled Pour-Ahmad’s death as “government murder” with tributes pouring in from around the world.
Journalist Noushabeh Amiri, who is now in Europe, Tweeted: “Pour-Ahmad was killed by the filthy Islamic Republic, yes, killed.”
She went on to say, “Killing can take different forms. When you chock off the air from an artist, when you pressure him every day, when you take his unfinished film and give it to security agents to complete it, when…This is how they killed Kyumars.”
He will go down in history as one of Iran’s greats. His most famous production was a TV serial called Majid’s Stories, about a boy living with his grandmother, which captivated children, teenagers and adults alike.
Film critic Mehrsa Rahnema told Iran International TV that Pour-Ahmad was one of the few Iranian filmmakers whose films and serials captured the hearts of people of all ages, because he was so close to the real lives of ordinary people.