Faisal bin Farhan al-Saud, the country’s minister of foreign affairs, told AFP that although talks have not yet reached a substantial result, they have made enough progress to move forward.
“We are committed to a substantive discussion with Iran on addressing the concerns that we and other countries in the region have,” he said. “That would allow us to come to a normal relationship with our neighbors in Iran. We think that an alignment of interests is possible, but that would require to address the concerns that we all have,” al-Saud said, adding that the past four rounds of talks have been “exploratory”.
In August, Iraqi moderation brought the regional foes to the table as Baghdad hosted a summit for neighboring countries. Baghdad had previously moderated talks between Tehran and Riyadh.
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. Iran’s support for the Houthi rebels in the Yemeni civil war since late 2014 has caused concerns for the Saudi establishment.
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.
Officials from both countries have expressed hope in tangible results from their talks.
Iran’s Customs Administration spokesperson Roohollah Latifi last month said that Saudi Arabia has “rejoined” the list of countries to which Iran exports.
Saudi Arabia has on several occasions criticized Iran’s nuclear activities.
“We have significant doubts,” al-Saud said. “Unfortunately, those doubts have only been reinforced in recent weeks and months given Iran's acceleration of its nuclear activity, which cannot be justified by a peaceful nuclear program.”
He said they hope the nuclear talks proceed positively.
Iran’s atomic agency earlier this month said that its stockpile of 20% enriched uranium has reached over 210 kilograms. Iran was not meant to enrich uranium above 3.67%, according to the 2015 nuclear deal known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
The Saudi remark comes as the nuclear deal talks are set to resume in Vienna on November 29. Last week, Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri visited several European countries, where upcoming nuclear talks were among the topics of his discussion, he said in a tweet on Friday.
Under former U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration, the U.S. withdrew from the nuclear accord and imposed a raft of sanctions in an effort to force Tehran to renegotiate a broader deal.
President Joe Biden wants to return to the deal. But talks to bring the U.S. back on board, lift sanctions and get Iran back into full compliance with its nuclear commitments were suspended in June to allow for the transition of its new government.
