Riyadh Says FM Made No Remarks on Ties with Tehran

"Adel Al-Jubeir did not make any remarks to any media outlet since assuming office as minister of foreign affairs," Osama Nogale, head of the information department at the Saudi foreign ministry said on Saturday.

"There is not an iota of accuracy in what has been attributed to him," the Saudi official added.

Some websites had quoted al-Jubeir as saying that he is "ready to go to Tehran to discuss various issues including Yemen."

The Saudi minister reportedly mentioned Iran's role in the Middle East and said Saudi Arabia has come to the conclusion that it has no alternative except to have direct talks with Iran and to settle the disputes, and that it is not in the interest of Saudi Arabia entering a new conflict with Iran.

According to the websites, he said the conflict in Iraq, the war in Syria, the government crisis in Lebanon, the problems of Palestinian groups in Gaza, the disputes in the government of Afghanistan, the issue of Bahrain and the Saudi Shiites crisis, the problems of the Taliban in Pakistan and the crisis in Yemen will only resolve by Iran and Tehran's interaction and cooperation.

The Saudi foreign minister was also quoted as saying that today, America and the West have come to this conclusion that they should interact and have dialogue with Tehran as with China and Russia, and the recent nuclear conversation showed America and West's determination to make peace with Iran.

Earlier on April 30, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, in a congratulatory message to his Saudi counterpart al-Jubeir, hoped for the promotion of bilateral relations between Tehran and Riyadh.

Zarif expressed the hope that during al-Jubeir's term, relations will develop between the governments and nations of the Islamic Republic of Iran and Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Iran and Saudi Arabia, as the two key regional powers in the Middle East, have tried in recent years to turn their traditional rivalry into cooperation