A senior Iranian official will travel to the UAE tomorrow to discuss bilateral relations

The visit of the secretary of the National Security Council comes after the agreement between Tehran and Riyadh to normalize their ties

March 15 (EUROPA PRESS) –

The secretary of the National Security Council of Iran, Ali Shamjani, will pay an official visit to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Thursday to address issues related to their bilateral relations, days after Tehran and Riyadh agreed to normalize their ties after seven years of tensions.

According to information collected by Nur News, a medium close to Iran’s National Security Council, Shamjani’s visit will take place at the invitation of his Emirati counterpart, Tahnun bin Zayed al Nahyan, without the UAE having made a statement for now.

Likewise, he stressed that Shamjani will meet with senior Emirati officials during his visit to address “bilateral, regional and international issues”. The secretary of the Iranian body will be accompanied by a delegation made up of representatives of Iran’s economic, banking and security sectors.

The UAE sent back its ambassador to Iran in September 2022, more than six years after downgrading its ties with Tehran after Saudi Arabia cut ties with the Iranian government in January 2016 following an assault on its embassy in Tehran during a protest over the execution of a prominent Saudi Shiite cleric.

The agreement between Iran and Saudi Arabia to resume their diplomatic relations has been applauded by the countries of the region and has opened the possibility of a reduction in the disputes between the two countries in the Middle East, including the conflict in Yemen.

On the other hand, the spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, Naser Kanani, indicated on Tuesday that he also opened the door to an improvement in relations with the Gulf countries, including Bahrain, with which Tehran maintains a tense relationship.

“Given these promising expectations, we can witness the materialization of new conditions in relations with the countries of the region, including Bahrain,” he said during an interview with Iran’s Al Alam television channel. “Fortunately, we are seeing good diplomatic movements in this regard,” he concluded.

The Bahraini authorities have accused Iran on numerous occasions of supporting the protests that broke out in 2011 in connection with the ‘Arab Spring’, while Tehran denies this point and demands that Manama respect the rights of its population, a majority of which is Shiite.