Syed Zafar Mehdi
08 February 2024•Update: 08 February 2024
TEHRAN, Iran
Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz has sent a congratulatory message to Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi on the 45th anniversary of the 1979 Iranian revolution.
The message was delivered by Saudi Ambassador to Tehran Abdullah bin Saud al-Anzi in a meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian on Thursday.
Iran is marking this week the 45th anniversary of the revolution that overthrew the rule of the Pahlavi dynasty and led to the establishment of the Islamic Republic in February 1979.
It is the first such congratulatory message from the Saudi king to the Iranian leadership since the two Gulf neighbors agreed to restore diplomatic ties in March last year.
The rapprochement came seven years after the two countries severed ties over mob attacks on Saudi diplomatic missions in Iran.
Raisi visited Saudi Arabia last November to attend an Arab-Islamic summit in what was the first official visit by an Iranian president to the Arab country in more than a decade.
A statement issued by the Iranian Foreign Ministry on Thursday said the Saudi ambassador delivered the message from King Salman in response to President Raisi's message to him.
The message, it stated, took up "developments in Gaza" and conveyed congratulations from the Saudi leadership to the Islamic Republic on the 45th anniversary of the 1979 revolution.
Amir-Abdollahian, in his remarks, expressed "satisfaction with the growing trend of relations" between the two countries and hoped these relations "will increase in a balanced manner in all fields and levels."
He considered the increase in bilateral cooperation between the two neighbors "in the interest of both countries and the region," the statement noted.
The Saudi ambassador, for his part, said Riyadh views its relations with Tehran as "strategic" and noted that his mandate is to "promote relations (between the two sides) in all fields."
