Russia offers to act as Saudi Arabia, Iran ‘intermediary’
Germany also urges Tehran and Riyadh to restore diplomatic relations, said it may reconsider arms exports to the kingdom
MOSCOW — Russia is ready to serve as an intermediary to resolve the dispute between Saudi Arabia and Iran that saw the kingdom break off diplomatic relations with Tehran, a Russian foreign ministry source told AFP on Monday.
“Russia is ready to serve as an intermediary between Riyadh and Tehran,” the source said, without providing any specifics about Moscow’s potential role in resolving the crisis.
Another unnamed Russian diplomatic source quoted by TASS news agency said Moscow was ready to host the Saudi and Iranian foreign ministers — Adel al-Jubeir and Mohammad Javad Zarif — for talks.
“If our partners Saudi Arabia and Iran show they are ready and willing (to meet), our initiative will remain on the table,” the source said.
Saudi Arabia announced Sunday it was severing its ties to Iran after its embassy in Tehran was firebombed in protest at the kingdom’s execution of Shiite cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr.
Nimr was a force behind 2011 anti-government protests in eastern Saudi Arabia, where Shiites have long complained of marginalisation.
The oil-rich rivals have also been divided over the nearly five-year war in Syria, where Iran is backing the regime, and the conflict in Yemen where a Saudi-led coalition is battling Shiite rebels.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov hosted both Jubeir and Zarif individually last year for talks on the Syrian crisis as Moscow pushed for the creation of a broad coalition to fight Islamic State jihadists in Syria.
Russia was not alone in urging Riyadh and Tehran on Monday to restore diplomatic relations, with Germany warning it would take into account developments in Saudi Arabia when it decides on arms exports there.
France meanwhile called for a “de-escalation” of tensions.
In Berlin, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s spokesman Steffen Seibert said: “We call on both countries to resume dialogue. We appeal to both countries… to use all means at their disposal to improve their diplomatic relations.”
He reiterated Germany’s “dismay” over Saudi Arabia’s execution of 47 prisoners, including a Shiite cleric, which sparked attacks on the Saudi embassy in Tehran followed by a severing of diplomatic ties between the two countries.
Seibert said relations between the key regional players are “of fundamental importance for resolving the crises in Syria and Yemen and for the stability of the entire region.”
Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier’s spokesman Martin Schaefer said that “for years the international community, including Germany, has been working to help ensure that the region’s many crises and conflicts… can be contained.”
