Report: Iran’s President Accepts Invitation to Visit Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia has officially invited President Rouhani to visit the kingdom, the Lebanese newspaper quoted diplomatic and political sources in Beirut as saying on Friday, describing it as a development that could help defuse sectarian tensions in the region.

Rouhani has accepted the invitation and officials in Tehran have begun making preparations for the visit, the sources told The Daily Star.

His visit is expected to take place following US President Barack Obama’s upcoming trip to Riyadh in the last week of March, they added.

Relations between regional heavyweights, Iran and Saudi Arabia, have been strained by policy differences, particularly over the 3-year-old war in Syria, where the two countries support opposing sides.

Speaker Nabih Berri and other Lebanese politicians have said that improved relations between Tehran and Riyadh would result in breakthroughs in the Syria crisis as well as in Lebanon and Iraq.

A turnabout in Iran's foreign policy and its focus on improving ties and reducing tensions with regional countries seem to be in line with President Hassan Rouhani's outreach to the outside world.

Earlier on September 19, Rouhani hailed Saudi Arabia as a close friend of the Islamic Republic, and expressed both nations’ willingness to smooth over "trivial tensions" that have strained bilateral relations.

Referring to Saudi Arabia as a “friend and brother” of Iran, the Iranian president had announced that both sides were “willing to remove trivial tensions from the path (of bilateral ties) in order to fulfill bilateral and the Islamic world’s interests.”

He had also stated that Tehran and Riyadh have a lot of common interests and enjoy regional commonalities, and emphasized the need for upgrading the level of interactions between the two Muslim countries.

“This issue (expansion of ties) has been emphasized both in the Saudi king’s congratulatory letter to me and in my letter to thank him,” Rouhani added.