DOHA (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 09th November, 2022) Saudi Arabia has suspended negotiations with Iran, which they continued for six months to restore diplomatic ties, due to the change of government in mediator-country Iraq, the Amwaj news website covering the Persian Gulf reported on Wednesday, citing an Arab negotiator.
Riyadh has informed Tehran through special channels that the dialogue stopped with the end of Mustafa Kadhimi's premiership in Iraq, as he was the chief mediator of Saudi-Iranian reconciliation talks, with little to no involvement of other Iraqi authorities, the source was cited as saying.
After Mohammed Sudani replaced Kadhimi as prime minister on October 28, the Iraqi mediation between Iran and Saudi Arabia, as well as other regional countries, stopped, the source was cited as saying.
The resumption of Saudi-Iranian talks is "not impossible," the source added.
On September 27, Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein told Sputnik on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly that Saudi Arabia and Iran could continue negotiations in Baghdad to normalize broken bilateral relations and resolve differences on the intelligence service level. According to the minister, Riyadh and Tehran had already reached agreements on many issues and could start talking at the level of foreign ministers.
Relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia soured in January 2016 following Riyadh's decision to execute Shia cleric Ayatollah Nimr al-Nimr, who questioned the Gulf monarchy's authority. On the same day, crowds of Iranians broke into the territory of Saudi Arabia's embassy in Tehran and consulate in Mashhad. In response, Riyadh severed diplomatic relations with Tehran.
