Tehran looking for reinforced cooperation with Riyadh

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif called for the consolidation of cooperation with Saudi Arabia in favor of regional peace and stability. “We look at Saudi Arabia as an important and influential country of the region and we try to reinforce our cooperation with this country in the interest of the region,” Zarif said, addressing a press conference after his meeting with the Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah in Kuwait City on Sunday. He pointed to the recent agreement between Iran and the Group 5+1 (the five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany) in Geneva, and said Iran will not sacrifice its friendly relations with the regional countries for this agreement. The Iranian minister left Tehran for a tour of the regional countries earlier today. In the first leg of his tour, Zarif arrived in the Kuwaiti capital this morning to pay an official visit to the Persian Gulf country. Later in the day, Zarif left Kuwait for the Omani capital, Masqat. The Iranian foreign minister is very likely to travel to Saudi Arabia after his official visit to Oman, but he told reporters that no date has yet been specified for this trips. Zarif’s regional tour came after French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, provoked by Israel and Saudi Arabia, took a negative stance on the nuclear deal between Iran and the major world powers in Geneva on November 7-9 and stopped endorsement of the deal which was in the making, although the agreement was eventually signed by all the seven countries 10 days later. Last month, a senior Iranian parliamentarian lashed out at Fabius for his negative stance on Iran’s nuclear deal with the world powers, saying, “Undoubtedly, the stonewalling by France has its roots in a hefty arms deal with Saudi Arabia.” Member of the Iranian Parliament's Presiding Board Abdolreza Mesri argued that France sought to curry favor with Saudi Arabia given its dire economic straits, adding, “Therefore, France has become the mouthpiece for the reactionaries and the Zionist regime (Israel) in the course of the recent talks.”