From al-Monitor:
When former Iranian President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani
died Jan. 8, much was made of the absence of a message of condolence
from Saudi Arabia. This was especially stark since Rafsanjani personally
enjoyed good relations with many Arab leaders and had played a key role
in the Saudi-Iranian rapprochement
in the years after the end of the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq War. Indeed, rulers
in Arab states such as Bahrain, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and
Oman all sent messages of condolence upon the death of a man described
as a “pillar” of Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.
On Jan. 24,
Entekhab News reported
that Saudi Arabia’s King Salman bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud had indeed
expressed his sympathy over the demise of Rafsanjani — in a letter
addressed only to his family. In the message, which was reportedly
relayed to the Iranian mission at the Organization of Islamic
Cooperation on Jan. 12,
Salman described Rafsanjani as “honorable” and wished for God to grant “patience” to the family of the late ayatollah.
News of the so-far unreported message of condolence surfaced as
Kuwait’s Foreign Minister Sabah Al-Khalid Al-Sabah paid a visit to Iran
for the first time in two years. According to a
Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)
report on Jan. 12, the foreign minister is apparently tasked with
passing on a message from the Gulf Cooperation Council to Iranian
officials.
Indeed, the semi-official ISNA news agency on Jan. 24 quoted an
Iranian Foreign Ministry representative as having said that the Kuwaiti
foreign minister was
carrying a message from the emir of Kuwait for Iranian President Hassan Rouhani.
However, on Jan. 25
ISNA quoted the Lebanese daily an-Nahar as reporting that Kuwait is seeking to deliver a message to mediate between Iran and Saudi Arabia.
In this vein, the Reformist
Etemaad daily
published an analytical article on Jan. 25, arguing, “The high-ranking
security and diplomatic officials of Iran have clearly welcomed the
decrease of tensions and [establishment of] a good relationship with
Saudi Arabia.”
Noting the visit of the Kuwaiti foreign minister to Tehran, Etemaad
added, “The attempts to improve the relationship between Tehran and
Riyadh which are underway indicate well that both parties have become
aware of the necessity of solving the [outstanding] issues, and despite
the intensifying attacks of the propaganda artillery of both parties,
the secret diplomacy is ongoing.”
The paper continued, “The repeated remarks of [Iran’s] foreign
minister or high-ranking security officials of Iran and the reaction of
the Saudis and activities of conservative Arabs aren’t without a reason
and any ground....
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In another section of al-Monitor the question is asked:
Will Iraq succeed in bringing Iran, Saudi Arabia closer?
On Jan. 14, Iraqi and
Iranian media reported that Iraqi Foreign Minister
Ibrahim al-Jaafari
offered to mediate between Iran and Saudi Arabia in order to overcome
their disputes and restore their bilateral relations that were ruptured
following the Jan. 2, 2016, attack on the Saudi Embassy in Tehran. The
attack came after a series of diplomatic tensions between the two
countries over incidents such as the 2015 hajj stampede in Mecca that
killed more than 450 pilgrims and Saudi Arabia’s execution of dissident
Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr on Jan. 2, 2016....
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