Saudi Arabia, Kuwait congratulate Iran's new reformist president elect

King Salman expresses wish for further dialogue and coordination to strengthen international peace and security; Kuwait wishes Tehran ‘more prosperity and development’

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – Saudi Arabia, which restored ties with Tehran last year following a years-long rift, congratulated Iran’s new president-elect Masoud Pezeshkian on Saturday.

King Salman, in a message to Pezeshkian, expressed hope for the “continued development of relations which link our two countries and our two brotherly peoples,” according to the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA).

He also expressed his wish for further “coordination and dialogue to strengthen regional and international peace and security,” SPA said.

After a seven-year rupture, Sunni Muslim-majority Saudi Arabia and Shiite-dominated Iran resumed relations under a surprise China-brokered deal announced in March last year.

Since then the two Middle East powers, which have often supported opposing sides in regional conflicts, have intensified their contacts.

Iran’s ultraconservative late president Ebrahim Raisi traveled to Riyadh in November for a summit on the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.

Iranian reformist presidential candidate Masoud Pezeshkian (C) leaves a polling station after voting in Tehran on July 5, 2024. (Atta Kenare/AFP)

Raisi’s death in a helicopter accident in May led to Iran’s early election, in which Pezeshkian defeated his ultraconservative challenger Saeed Jalili in a runoff.

The emir of Kuwait, another Gulf state, also sent a cable of congratulations to Pezeshkian, wishing “more prosperity and development” for the Islamic Republic, Kuwait’s official KUNA news agency said.