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Eight killed in clashes in Somalia's Puntland region

By - Jun 21,2023 - Last updated at Jun 21,2023

MOGADISHU — At least eight people were killed on Tuesday in fighting outside parliament in Somalia's semi-autonomous region of Puntland between local security forces and armed militiamen loyal to opposition politicians, police and witnesses said.

The clashes in the state capital, Garowe, erupted during a parliamentary session to debate changes to the local constitution, which the opposition claims is a bid by Puntland's president to extend his term in office.

"Around eight people were confirmed dead in the fighting and more than 10 others were wounded, including civilians," said Abdiweli Hassan, a police officer in Garowe.

He said the violence broke out when gunmen loyal to opposition politicians confronted security forces protecting parliament and tried to disrupt the session.

"They have been defeated and the situation in town is calm now," he said, adding: "No one will be allowed to act above the law."

One witness, Mohamednur Ali, said he saw around six dead bodies and several wounded people, adding: "The fighting was very intense and both sides used heavy machine guns."

“The situation is normal now but there is still sporadic gunfire,” Ali said.

Another witness, Nimo Adan, said she was caught up in the crossfire and saw several people killed.

In May, Puntland held local elections that were the first direct polls in Somalia in more than half a century, outside the breakaway region of Somaliland.

At the time, opposition politicians accused Puntland state president Said Abdullahi Deni of manipulating the election procedure and seeking to amend the constitution to enable him to extend his mandate which is due to end in January next year.

Later in May, Somalia’s central government and four federal member states — excluding Puntland — announced a deal for a one-person one-vote system to be introduced with local elections set for June next year.

It followed a pledge by President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud in March to end the complex clan-based indirect voting system in the Horn of Africa nation, which has been mired in chaos for decades.

Somalia has not held direct elections nationwide since 1969, when the dictator Siad Barre seized power.

But the new plan also calls for parliamentary and presidential votes in the federal states on November 30 next year, beyond the current expiry dates of some mandates including Deni’s term.

An arid oil-rich region in northeastern Somalia, Puntland declared autonomy in 1998 and relations with the central government in Mogadishu have often been tense.

UN Palestinian refugee agency warns of cash shortage

By - Jun 20,2023 - Last updated at Jun 20,2023

BEIRUT — The head of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees warned on Tuesday that a funding squeeze could jeopardise access to basic services for millions.

UNRWA provides services such as health, sanitation, education and social assistance to nearly six million Palestinians registered in the Palestinian territories, including Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem, as well as in Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.

It is the latest in a series of warnings from UNRWA on possible deep cuts if the international community fails to provide more support.

In January, it appealed for $1.6 billion in funding for 2023, but donors have only pledged around half of that amount.

UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said Tuesday his agency was seeking $300 million "to keep our operations running between now and the end of the year".

"If we have no more commitment from member states, we will hit the wall" from autumn, he told a press conference in Beirut.

The agency needs $200 million for "core activities" including education and social safety nets, $75 million for food aid in the Israeli-blockaded Gaza Strip, and around $20 million in cash assistance to refugees in Syria, Lebanon and Jordan, he said.

There is a "risk of a vacuum in the absence of any proper alternative" to UNRWA's "state-like" services, he said.

"Once we reach an inflection point it will be very difficult to reverse it."

UNRWA has long faced chronic budget shortfalls, with the agency "in crisis-mode for about 10 years", according to Lazzarini.

He said refugees in Lebanon, crippled by a three-year-long economic collapse, have been hit particularly hard.

The agency advertised 14 jobs for garbage collectors and "received 37,000 applications", including many candidates with university degrees, Lazzarini said.

UNRWA has previously warned that its needs have been skyrocketing as global crises, inflation and disruptions in global supply chains contributed to surging poverty and unemployment levels among Palestinians.

“We fear to reach a point where the agency cannot cover salaries anymore for 30,000 employees in the region,” Lazzarini added.

“Sooner or later our ability to deliver services will come to an end,” he warned.

 

Turkish drone strike kills three in northeast Syria— Kurdish official

By - Jun 20,2023 - Last updated at Jun 20,2023

QAMISHLI, Syria — A Turkish drone strike killed three employees of northeast Syria's semi-autonomous Kurdish administration on Tuesday, a spokesman said, amid a recent uptick in attacks targeting Kurdish-held areas.

The strike targeted "a vehicle transporting civilian employees, killing two Kurdish women and a Christian" man, said Farhad Shami, spokesman for the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the administration's de facto army.

A fourth employee was wounded, he added.

The US-supported SDF led the battle that dislodged Daesh group fighters from the last scraps of their Syrian territory in 2019.

Ankara considers the People's Protection Units (YPG), which dominate the SDF, to be an offshoot of the banned Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), designated as a terrorist group by Turkey and its Western allies.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said Tuesday's strike hit a vehicle on a road between the cities of Qamishli and Amuda, along the Turkish border.

The Britain-based monitor said Turkish drone strikes have killed 39 people in Kurdish-held areas this year, including seven civilians and 29 SDF or allied fighters.

Sixteen people died in a single day earlier this month, the observatory previously reported.

Shami however gave a higher civilian death toll of 21 killed in Turkish drone strikes this year, including five children.

Since 2016, Turkey has carried out successive ground operations to expel Kurdish forces from border areas of northern Syria.

Syria's 12-year war broke out after President Bashar Assad's repression of peaceful anti-government demonstrations escalated into a deadly conflict that pulled in foreign powers and global extremists.

The conflict has killed more than half-a-million people and displaced millions.

Troubled Kuwait swears in fifth government in a year

By - Jun 20,2023 - Last updated at Jun 20,2023

KUWAIT CITY — Kuwait’s fifth government in less than one year took the oath of office on Monday after elections returned an opposition-controlled parliament, setting the stage for further political turmoil in the oil-rich emirate.

Four royals are among the 15-strong Cabinet, which is appointed by the ruling Al Sabah family and has a history of clashes with the Gulf’s only elected national assembly with powers to hold government to account.

Kuwait is one of the world’s biggest oil producers but decades of political instability, including seven general election cycles in just over a decade, have spooked investors and stymied economic reforms.

Prime Minister Sheikh Ahmad Nawaf Al Ahmad Al Sabah, the son of Kuwait’s 85-year-old emir, is now presiding over his fifth Cabinet since he was appointed last August.

“Positive and constructive cooperation with parliament and all members of society will be at the heart of the government’s work,” he told the swearing-in ceremony.

Saad Al Barrak comes in as oil minister, and Public Works Minister Amani Bougammaz, the only woman in the cabinet, is one of nine people to retain their positions.

Sheikh Ahmad Al Fahad Al Sabah, the sports powerbroker and former International Olympic Committee member who in 2021 was convicted of forgery in a Swiss court, returns as defence minister and deputy prime minister.

This month’s legislative elections were held after the constitutional court had annulled the results of the previous polls held in September, also won by the opposition.

In the new parliament, which is due to meet for the first time on Tuesday, opposition figures including Islamists, independents and the assembly’s lone woman hold 29 of the 50 seats.

Kuwait, which borders Saudi Arabia and Iraq, is home to seven percent of the world’s crude reserves. It has little debt and one of the strongest sovereign wealth funds worldwide.

However, it suffers from constant stand-offs between elected lawmakers and Cabinets installed by the ruling family, which maintains a strong grip over political life despite a parliamentary system in place since 1962.

 

UAE, Qatar reopen embassies after years of tensions

By - Jun 20,2023 - Last updated at Jun 20,2023

This handout photo released by the Qatar News Agency (QNA) on Monday shows the newly reopened Qatari embassy in Abu Dhabi after a six-year hiatus (AFP photo)

DUBAI — The United Arab Emirates and Qatar announced on Monday the reopening of their respective diplomatic missions, six years after the Gulf rivals severed ties during a regional blockade that sent tensions soaring.

The two resource-rich monarchies restored official relations in January 2021, after the end of the nearly four-year diplomatic and transport blockade that isolated tiny Qatar.

“The United Arab Emirates and the State of Qatar announced the restoration of diplomatic representation between the two countries,” said a statement on the UAE’s official WAM news agency.

The sides are “resuming the work at the embassy of the UAE in Doha, and at the embassy of Qatar in Abu Dhabi and its consulate in Dubai”, it said.

A similar statement was released by Qatar’s foreign ministry.

Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt imposed a diplomatic and transport blockade on Qatar in 2017, accusing it of supporting extremist organisations and becoming too close to Iran. Doha has denied the allegations.

The reopening of the diplomatic missions comes at a time of an easing in Gulf enmities after heavyweight rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran announced in March the end of a seven-year break in ties.

Among the round of reconciliation that has followed, Qatar and close neighbours Bahrain put aside a chronic feud to resume relations in April.

Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Faisal Bin Farhan visited Iran on Saturday, meeting President Ebrahim Raisi, in another major step in their rapprochement. Iran reopened its Riyadh embassy this month.

The detente between the Sunni Muslim kingdom and Shiite theocracy appears momentous because they have long been vying for influence around the region, backing opposing sides in conflicts including Yemen.

 

Five Palestinians killed as Israel deploys helicopters in West Bank

By - Jun 20,2023 - Last updated at Jun 20,2023

Palestinian mourners carry the bodies of three men killed during an Israeli military raid in Jenin, in the occupied West Bank, on Monday (AFP photo)

JENIN, Palestinian Territories — Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank killed five Palestinians including a fighter on Monday, in a raid that saw eight Israeli forces personnel wounded and rare helicopter fire.

Palestinian authorities reported "intense gunfire" by Israeli forces in what the army described as "routine activity" in which an armoured vehicle was said to have been hit by a "dramatic" explosion.

The Palestinian health ministry said five people had been killed and at least 91 others were wounded in the violence.

It identified those killed as 15-year-old Ahmed Saqer, as well as Khaled Assassa, 21, Qais Jabareen, 21, Ahmad Daraghmeh, 19, and Qassam Abu Saria, 29.

The Palestinian Islamic Jihad claimed Abu Saria as a fighter for the group.

Among the injured was Palestinian journalist Hazem Nasser, who was hospitalised with a gunshot wound, according to the Palestinian journalists syndicate.

The sound of gunfire was heard across Jenin as wounded Palestinians continued to arrive by ambulance to the northern West Bank city's Ibn Sina hospital into the early afternoon, an AFP journalist said.

Crowds, among them Palestinian gunmen, gathered outside a government hospital in Jenin for the funerals of those killed in 11 hours of fighting.

Jenin’s deputy governor, Kamal Abu Al Rub, told AFP the Israeli forces had launched the raid at around 4:00 am (01:00 GMT).

“The army stormed the [Jenin refugee] camp and the city after the dawn prayer in large numbers, and there was intense gunfire,” he said.

Jenin camp resident Bassem Talib, 38, said he “woke up to the sounds of gunfire at 4:15 in the morning”.

“The army targeted anything that moved... there is no safety,” he said.

An AFP journalist at the scene said Israeli forces withdrew from Jenin at around 15:10 (12:10 GMT).

 

‘Deteriorating situation’ 

 

The Israeli forces said an armoured vehicle had been hit by a “very unusual and dramatic” explosive device at around 7:10 am [04:10 GMT], during “routine activity” to arrest two “wanted suspects” — one affiliated with Islamist movement Hamas and the other with Islamic Jihad.

“We had five Israeli border police guys wounded, and two soldiers also lightly wounded,” army spokesman Richard Hecht said. “From that point, we had to extract our injured.”

In the early afternoon, he has warned it would “take a few hours, it’s going to be pretty harsh, there is a lot of fire”.

The army said an Apache helicopter had fired missiles in support of the soldiers.

A Palestinian intelligence official told AFP on condition of anonymity it was the first time since 2002 — during the second Palestinian intifada, or uprising — that the Israeli army has fired missiles from an aircraft during a raid in Jenin.

United Nations rights chief Volker Turk said he was “extremely worried by the deteriorating situation”.

“Unlawful killings of Palestinians by the Israeli security forces have increased, including apparent extrajudicial executions,” he added.

Violence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has escalated over the past year, particularly since the hard-right government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took power in December.

 

‘Open war’ 

 

Palestinian health minister Mai Al Kaila called for the “urgent” dispatch of blood and medical supplies to Jenin.

Hussein Al Sheikh, the Palestinian Authority’s civil affairs minister, said a “fierce and open war is being waged against the Palestinian people... by the occupation [Israeli] forces”.

Speaking as the raid unfolded, Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said: “We will use all the tools at our disposal and strike terrorists wherever they may be.”

The raid came as the US State Department’s top Middle East official, Barbara Leaf, was in Ramallah to meet with the Palestinian leadership.

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and Islamic Jihad chief Ziyad Al Nakhalah were also in Tehran for talks with Iranian leaders on Monday.

Israel has occupied the West Bank since the 1967 June War and its forces regularly launch incursions into Palestinian cities, which are nominally under the control of President Mahmud Abbas’s Palestinian Authority.

Jenin and its adjacent refugee camp — which was besieged by the army in 2002 and saw deadly fighting — have frequently been the site of violent clashes between Israel and the Palestinians.

In March, four Palestinians were killed during a raid on the camp.

Ten Palestinians were killed in another operation in the camp in January — at the time the deadliest single raid in the West Bank for 20 years. An incursion into Nablus the following month killed 11 Palestinians.

Since the start of the year, at least 164 Palestinians, 21 Israelis, a Ukrainian and an Italian have been killed in violence linked to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, according to an AFP tally compiled from official sources.

The figures include combatants as well as civilians and, on the Israeli side, three members of the Arab minority.

72-hour truce between Sudan's warring generals takes effect

By - Jun 18,2023 - Last updated at Jun 18,2023

A photo taken on Thursday, shows the gates of a mostly-empty secondary school for girls in Wad Madani, the capital of Al Jazirah state, amid disruptions in classes as fighting continues in Sudan (AFP photo)

KHARTOUM — A 72-hour ceasefire between Sudan's warring generals took effect on Sunday to allow for the delivery of desperately needed aid to the country, on the eve of a humanitarian conference.

The army, led by Abdel Fattah Al Burhan, has since April 15 been battling paramilitary forces commanded by his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, after the two fell out in a bitter power struggle.

Multiple truces have been agreed and broken in the war that has claimed the lives of more than 2,000 and driven over 2 million from their homes, including at least 528,000 who fled abroad.

The latest ceasefire came into force at 6:00 am (04:00 GMT), with the mediators saying the two sides had agreed to refrain from attacks and allow freedom of movement and the delivery of aid.

"The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and United States of America announce the agreement of representatives of the Sudanese Armed Forces [SAF] and the Rapid Support Forces [RSF] on a ceasefire throughout Sudan for a period of 72 hours," the Saudi foreign ministry said.

Witnesses in Khartoum said the situation was "calm".

"We want a full ceasefire," Sami Omar, who lives in Khartoum's twin city of Omdurman, told AFP.

"A truce is not sufficient for us to return to our lives. They may stop fighting, but the RSF will not leave the homes [they occupy]."

The United Nations will on Monday host an international donors' conference for Sudan in Geneva.

 

Intensifying air strikes 

 

Clashes had intensified before both sides pledged to respect the truce in separate statements on Saturday evening.

The RSF said it would abide by the truce, while the army said "despite our commitment to the ceasefire, we will respond decisively to any violations the rebels commit".

Saudi Arabia had threatened on Saturday to "postpone" negotiations on its soil, "should the parties fail to respect the 72-hour ceasefire".

The warring generals have also sent envoys to regional capitals.

In Cairo, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi on Sunday hosted former rebel leader Malik Agar, who replaced Daglo as Burhan's deputy.

Warplanes had on Saturday struck residential districts of Khartoum, killing “17 civilians, including five children”, according to a citizens’ support committee. AFP was unable to independently confirm the figures.

The RSF accused the army of targeting residential areas and claimed to have shot down a fighter jet.

A video the paramilitary forces posted online showed destroyed homes and blankets covering what appeared to be dead bodies.

Multiple diplomatic missions in the capital have come under attack or been looted, most of them having ceased operations since the fighting began.

Tunisia on Sunday protested looting by “armed groups” at the ambassador’s residence in Khartoum.

Since battles began, the death toll across Sudan has topped 2,000, the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project says.

A record 25 million people — more than half the population — now depends on humanitarian aid, the United Nations says.

 

‘Ominous reminder’ 

 

Intense fighting has rocked the western region of Darfur, with the United States saying as many as 1,100 people have been killed in the West Darfur state capital of El Geneina alone.

The Doctors Without Borders (MSF) charity issued an urgent call for more beds and staff across the border in Chad, where it said more than 600 patients — most with gunshot wounds — had arrived.

Chadian leader General Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno visited the border town of Adre to assess the scale of “the influx of refugees and ensure that the borders with Sudan are effectively closed”, his office said.

The International Organisation for Migration says at least 149,000 people have fled from Darfur into Chad, among the roughly 2.2 million uprooted by the fighting.

The United States attributed this week’s atrocities in Darfur “primarily” to the RSF and said alleged rights violations were an “ominous reminder” of the region’s previous genocide.

A years-long war in Darfur began in 2003 with a rebel uprising that prompted then-strongman Omar Al Bashir to unleash the Janjaweed militia, whose actions led to international charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The RSF have their origins in the Janjaweed.

Yemen rivals discuss possible prisoner swap in Jordan — Red Cross

By - Jun 18,2023 - Last updated at Jun 18,2023

DUBAI — Yemen's government and Iran-backed Houthi rebels are locked in talks in Jordan to set the ground for a possible prisoner exchange, a Red Cross official told AFP on Sunday.

Yemen's conflict began in 2014 when the Houthis seized the capital Sanaa, prompting a Saudi-led coalition to intervene the following year to prop up the internationally recognised government.

The fighting has since killed hundreds of thousands of people directly or indirectly and created what the United Nations calls one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.

The negotiations since Friday in the Jordanian capital Amman are overseen by the office of the UN special envoy to Yemen and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), said Jessica Moussan, ICRC's media adviser for the Middle East.

They are meeting "together with... parties to the conflict in Yemen to address issues pertaining to negotiations on a future release operation", she told AFP.

On Friday, the UN envoy's office said the Amman talks were a follow-up to an agreement stuck by the two sides in Stockholm five years ago.

The deal called for the “release all prisoners, detainees, missing persons, arbitrarily detained and forcibly disappeared persons, and those under house arrest”, held in connection with Yemen’s nearly decade-long conflict, “without any exceptions or conditions”.

Moussan said the ICRC was engaged with both sides to secure a prisoner swap in line with a deal agreed in Switzerland in March that saw nearly 900 prisoners freed.

That agreement came after regional powerhouses Iran and Saudi Arabia announced they were resuming ties after a seven-year rupture, in a landmark Chinese-brokered rapprochement that has shifted regional relations.

The prisoner swap was carried out over three days in April, coinciding with intensifying diplomatic to secure a long-term ceasefire.

A six-month truce brokered by the United Nations expired in October last year, but fighting has largely remained on hold.

Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to Yemen, Mohammed Al Jaber, travelled to Sanaa in April as part of a plan to “stabilise” the truce.

Although no deal was struck, Jaber had told AFP the warring parties were “serious” about ending the conflict, which the United Nations says has displaced 4.5 million Yemenis internally and pushed more than two-thirds of the population into poverty.

UN special envoy Hans Grundberg told an international forum in The Hague over the past week that “the road to peace is going to be long and difficult”.

Iraq unveils ancient stone tablet returned by Italy

By - Jun 18,2023 - Last updated at Jun 18,2023

Iraqi President Abdul Latif Rashid (centre) flanked by Culture Minister Ahmed Fakak Al Badrani (left) and the Director of the Iraqi Council of Antiquities and Heritage Laith Majid Hussein, speaks during a press conference in Baghdad, during which a 2,800-year-old stone tablet was unveiled after it was handed over by the Italian authorities to the Iraqi president during his recent visit to Bologna, on Sunday (AFP photo)

BAGHDAD — Iraq unveiled on Sunday a 2,800-year-old stone tablet returned by Italy, as the war-ravaged country works to recover from abroad antiquities looted from its territory.

The tablet — whose text is written in cuneiform, the Babylonian alphabet — bears the insignia of Shalmaneser III, the Assyrian king who ruled the region of Nimrod, in present-day northern Iraq, from 858 to 823BC.

The circumstances surrounding the tablet’s arrival in Italy remain unclear, but the Italian authorities handed it over to Iraqi President Abdul Latif Rashid during a visit to Bologna over the past week.

“I would like to thank the Italian officials for their efforts and cooperation in bringing back this piece,” Rashid said during a ceremony on Sunday at a Baghdad presidential palace to hand the artefact over to the national museum.

The tablet had arrived in the 1980s in Italy, where it was seized by police, said Laith Majid Hussein, director of Baghdad’s council of antiquities and heritage.

Iraqi Culture Minister Ahmed Fakak Al Badrani said the circumstances behind its discovery were unclear.

“Perhaps [it was found] during archaeological excavations or during work on the Mosul dam,” Iraq’s biggest built in the 1980s, he said.

He underlined the importance of the piece, “whose cuneiform text is complete”.

Modern Iraq’s territory is the cradle of the Sumerian, Akkadian, Babylonian and Assyrian civilisations, to which humanity owes writing and the first cities.

The country’s antiquities have been the target of looting that increased in the chaos following the US-led invasion of 2003.

“We will continue to work to recover all the archaeological pieces of Iraqi history from abroad,” said the Iraqi president.

“We want to make the national Iraq Museum one of the best museums in the world, and we will work to do so.”

In May, New York prosecutor Alvin Bragg announced the return of two ancient sculptures to Iraq: A limestone Mesopotamian elephant and an alabaster Sumerian bull from the old city of Uruk.

The figurines, stolen during the Gulf War, were smuggled into New York in the late 1990s, according to the prosecutor’s office.

The bull was part of the private collection of Shelby White, a billionaire philanthropist and Met trustee.

 

Iran, Saudi Arabia move further towards reconciliation

By - Jun 17,2023 - Last updated at Jun 17,2023

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian poses for photo with his Saudi counterpart Faisal Bin Farhan in Tehran, on Saturday (AFP photo)

TEHRAN — Iran and Saudi Arabia took a further step on Saturday to seal their reconciliation as Riyadh's top diplomat made a landmark visit to the Islamic republic following a seven-year rupture.

Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal Bin Farhan held talks with his Iranian counterpart Hossein Amir-Abdollahian focusing on regional security, and was also to meet President Ebrahim Raisi.

Sunni Muslim power Saudi Arabia severed relations with Shiite-led Iran in 2016 after its embassy in Tehran and consulate in the northwestern city of Mashhad were attacked during protests over Riyadh's execution of Shiite cleric Nimr Al Nimr

But the two countries agreed in March to mend ties and reopen their respective embassies, in a Chinese-brokered deal that has shifted regional relations.

On June 6, Iran reopened its embassy and consulate in Saudi Arabia and the kingdom is expected to reopen its diplomatic mission in Tehran "soon", Prince Faisal said.

"I would like to point out the importance of cooperation between our two countries concerning the regional security, especially the security of maritime navigation and waterways," Prince Faisal said at a joint news conference with Amir-Abdollahian.

The Iranian foreign minister told reporters they had discussing ways of bolstering cooperation in the fields of security, economy, tourism and transportation.

But Amir-Abdollahian stressed Iran’s view that “regional security will be ensured by regional actors only” without external interference.

“Our relations are based on a clear foundation of full and mutual respect for independence, sovereignty and non-interference in internal affairs,” Prince Faisal added.

The Saudi foreign minister said he would extend an invitation to Raisi “to visit the kingdom soon”.

Prince Faisal was the first Saudi foreign minister to visit Iran since 2006 when the late Saudi top diplomat Prince Saudi Al Faisal made a trip to Tehran.

Since restoring ties, Saudi Arabia has pushed for a peace deal with Iran-backed Houthi rebels and also championed the return last month of key Iran ally Syria to the Arab fold.

Saturday’s meeting between the Saudi and Iranian foreign ministers was not the first for the two top diplomats.

Prince Faisal and Amir-Abdollahian had met in Beijing in April, where they both vowed to promote regional security and stability.

The same month, a Saudi delegation visited Iran to discuss reopening its diplomatic missions, Riyadh’s foreign ministry said at the time.

While Iran reopened its embassy in Saudi Arabia, the reopening of the Saudi embassy in Tehran has been delayed due to the poor condition of the building which was damaged during the 2016 protests.

Pending the completion of the work, Saudi diplomats will be working from a luxury hotel in Tehran, according to media reports.

After the landmark deal with the Saudi kingdom, Iran has moved to cementing or restoring ties with neighbouring Arab countries.

In April, Iran named an ambassador to the United Arab Emirates nearly eight years after his predecessor left.

The move came after Iran welcomed an Emirati ambassador last September ending a six-year absence after the UAE had cut the level of its diplomatic representation in 2016.

Iran has also said it would welcome restoring diplomatic ties with Bahrain to end a seven-year rupture.

And at the end of May, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said he would welcome a resumption of relations with Egypt which have been cut since the 1979 Islamic revolution.

 

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