6 Apr. (EUROPE PRESS) –
The director of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), William Burns, made a surprise visit to Saudi Arabia earlier this week to meet with his intelligence counterparts and national leaders as part of the restoration of diplomatic relations. between Riyadh and Tehran.
“The director reinforced our commitment to intelligence cooperation, especially in areas such as the fight against terrorism,” a US official told on Thursday.
Burns would have expressed his “frustration” to Saudi officials over the recent rapprochement between Riyadh and Tehran, through a diplomatic agreement negotiated by China, as well as the opening of the agreement with Syria, as reported by The Wall Street Journal. .
The foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia and Iran, Faisal bin Farhan and Hosein Amirabdolahian, respectively, met on Thursday in Beijing, China, to discuss the process of normalization of bilateral relations.
Iran and Saudi Arabia ratified in March the resumption of their diplomatic relations with the announcement of an agreement to reopen their respective embassies within a maximum period of two months. The announcement was made in the form of a tripartite declaration at the foreign level by the Iranian, Saudi and Chinese governments, which has acted as a mediator in the rapprochement talks.
Tehran and Riyadh severed diplomatic relations in 2016 following an attack on Saudi missions in Iran by protesters calling for a halt to the execution of Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr. They are also indirectly involved through the war in Yemen, where Riyadh supports the Yemeni government while Tehran does the same with the Huthi insurgency.
