U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director William Burns made a surprise visit to Saudi Arabia earlier this week to meet with 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 counterterrorism,» a U.S. official told CNN Thursday.
Burns would have expressed his »frustration» to the Saudi officials for the recent rapprochement between Riyadh and Tehran, through a diplomatic agreement negotiated by China, as well as for the opening of the one with Syria, according to the newspaper ‘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 in March ratified the resumption of their diplomatic relations with the announcement of an agreement to reopen their respective embassies within a maximum of two months. The announcement was made in the form of a tripartite statement at the Foreign Ministry level by the Iranian, Saudi and Chinese governments, which has acted as 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 entangled through the Yemen war, where Riyadh backs the Yemeni government while Tehran does the same with the Huthi insurgency.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
