Saudi army chief set to pay rare visit to Iran to meet counterpart as relations warm

TEHRAN, Iran — A top Saudi military official will visit Tehran on Sunday for talks with Iranian officials, state media reported, in a rare high-level meeting since the countries restored ties last year.

“Fayyad al-Ruwaili, chief of staff of the Armed Forces of Saudi Arabia, will travel to Iran at the head of a high-ranking military delegation” on Sunday, the local Tasnim news agency said.

He is scheduled to meet with his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Bagheri in an effort to bolster “defense ties” between the countries, it reported.

Bagheri had declared Iran’s readiness to improve military relations with Saudi Arabia in a phone call with the Saudi defense minister in November 2023, the official Iranian news agency IRNA reported at the time.

In March 2023, Shiite Muslim-dominated Iran and Sunni-majority Saudi Arabia resumed relations under a surprise China-brokered deal.

Tehran and Riyadh had severed ties in 2016 after Saudi diplomatic missions in Iran were attacked during protests over Riyadh’s execution of Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr.

They have long backed opposing sides in conflict zones across the region, most notably in Syria and Yemen.

In October, Saudi Arabia announced that it had held war games with Iran and other countries in the Sea of Oman.