Fifth round of Saudi-Iran talks on the agenda: Iran foreign ministry

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A fifth round of talks between Iran and Saudi Arabia hosted by Iraq is on the Islamic Republic’s agenda, despite ongoing differences between both countries on several topics, the spokesperson to Iran’s foreign ministry told reporters on Sunday.

“The next round of talks between Iran and Saudi Arabia, hosted by Iraq, is on the agenda, and we have tried to continue our stable relations and talks with openness and effort, despite the differences in the existing cases,” Iran’s state media reported Saeed Khatibzadeh as saying.

Since last year, Iran and Saudi negotiators have met in Baghdad on four occasions in the presence of Iraqi officials to speak about how to resolve their differences in the Middle East, particularly when it comes to the conflict in Yemen where Iran-backed Houthi militias are known to use Iranian manufactured drones and missiles to target Saudi airports and cities.

Iraq has played a key role in facilitating the talks, with the fifth round of Saudi-Iran talks delayed whileIraqi political actors continue the process of forming a new government following the country’s parliamentary elections.

On Sunday, the first Iraqi parliamentary session met in Baghdad, with the country’s prime minister and president expected to be voted upon over the next few weeks.

Saudi Arabia and the Islamic Republic have had rocky relations since 1979, when Shia revolutionaries came to power in Iran and pledged to export its revolution to the world, including Gulf countries. Their relations took a notable dive in 2016, when Iranian protesters attacked Saudi diplomatic missions after the kingdom executed Shiite cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr. Iran’s support for Houthi rebels in the Yemeni civil war since late 2014 has caused concerns for the Saudi establishment.

Tens of thousands have been killed, and over 80 percent of Yemen’s population are dependent on aid according to the United Nations.

Both Iranian and Saudi officials have over the past few months expressed mixed feelings towards each other.

Iran’s ambassador to Iraq on Wednesday said that the fifth round will take place in the “near future”, noting Iraq’s “positive” role in the talks.

However this comes just days after the Saudi king expressed concerns with Iran’s destabilization policies.

“We are following with great concern the Iranian regime's policy of destabilizing security and stability in the region, including the establishment and support of sectarian and armed militias, the systematic deployment of its military capabilities in the countries of the region, and its failure to cooperate with the international community regarding the nuclear program and its development of ballistic missile programs,” King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud said late last month.

In an interview with AFP in November, the Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan al-Saud said that the kingdom was committed to holding “substantive” talks with Iran, and it believes that an alignment of interests is possible between the two countries.