TEHRAN – Iranian President Hassan Rouhani says Iran is ready to restore ties with Saudi Arabia if it stops bombing Yemen and cuts its alleged ties with Israel.
“Saudi Arabia should suspend its bombardment of Yemen and stop looking for contacts with the Zionist regime,” he said in an address to parliament on Sunday as cited by Iran’s Press TV. “We want Saudi Arabia to stop two things, the misguided friendship with Israel and the inhuman bombardment of Yemen.”
The confrontation between Iran and Saudi Arabia is multi-layered, rooted in religious, economic and political differences between the two. But, according to Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani, relations between the two may improve, if the Saudis take a certain course of action.
Rouhani said if these two conditions are met, relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia may be restored. Riyadh severed formal relations with Tehran in January 2016 in response to an attack on its embassy in the Islamic Republic. The diplomatic facility was seized by a crowd of angry protesters, who wanted revenge for the execution of prominent Shiite cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr days earlier. The diplomatic rift came amid a long period of escalating tension between the two Muslim nations.
