Tehran, Iran, Aug 16
By Mehdi Sepahvand –- Trend:
Saudi Arabia’s recent conciliatory approach to Iran is not expected to bring much real change to the existing situation between the two countries, a political commentator told Trend, Aug 16.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman’s close ties with Tel Aviv, as well as the current plight brought on by the Trump administration, exhaust the hopes that his recent push toward Iran will be much effective, Mahdi Motehhernyaa said.
Recently, Iraqi Interior Minister Qasim al-Araji visiting Iran said that bin Salman had officially asked him to mediate between Tehran and Riyadh.
One day earlier, Iranian media outlets reported on the reopening of the Hajj Office of Ayatollah Khamenei, the leader of the Islamic Revolution, in Saudi Arabia, which was considered as a move by Riyadh to bury hatchets with Tehran.
Furthermore, Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and his Saudi counterpart Adel al-Jubeir shook hands on Aug 2 in Istanbul, at the extraordinary meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) dedicated to the recent tensions in the occupied city of al-Quds. That handshake, on the background of nonexistent diplomatic relations between the two regional powers for a couple of years, rapidly went viral.
Political expert noted, however, that President Hassan Rouhani’s pragmatic-realistic approach to the foreign policy, free of ideological preferences of his predecessors, is giving Iran a better chance of global acceptance.
He went on to note, nonetheless, that Iran and Saudi Arabia, as significant regional powers, would greatly benefit from the adoption of a détente (the easing of strained relations) policy toward each other, especially regarding the fact that their disagreements and rivalries find much deeper meanings and consequences, negatively affecting region’s geopolitical equations.