Iran appoints 1st envoy to UAE since 2016 thaw

Iran appointed its first ambassador to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) since a 2016 thaw and a realignment of relations between Gulf states and Iran, reported Dawn.

Iran's newly appointed ambassador Reza Ameri had served as the Director General of the Iranian Expatriates office in the Foreign Ministry, said Iranian state media. In August last year, the UAE upgraded its ties with Iran and announced the return of its ambassador to Tehran, marking a significant shift in their previously strained relations.

The UAE downgraded relations with Iran after Saudi Arabia severed ties with Iran in January 2016 after Iranian protesters stormed the Saudi embassy in Tehran following Riyadh's execution of a prominent Shiite cleric, reported Dawn.

The animosity between Iran and Saudi Arabia had previously threatened stability and security in the Gulf, and fueled conflicts in the Middle East from Yemen to Syria.

However, in a significant breakthrough last month, Riyadh announced that it would re-establish ties with Tehran in a China-brokered deal, marking a step-change in years of hostility between the two nations.

The UAE, which has business and trade ties with Iran stretching back more than a century, started re-engaging with Tehran in 2019 after attacks in Gulf waters and on Saudi energy sites, reported Dawn.The UAE's Dubai emirate has long been one of Iran's main links to the outside world.

Meanwhile, the top envoys for Saudi Arabia and Iran will meet in Beijing on Thursday, an Iranian official and a Saudi-owned newspaper said, as the two regional rivals work to hash out the next steps of their diplomatic rapprochement amid a China-brokered deal, reported Dawn.

The meeting between Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud and his Iranian counterpart, Hossein Amirabdollahian, will be the first formal meeting between Saudi Arabia and Iran's most senior diplomats in more than seven years.