Iranian Officials and State-Censored Media React to Resumption of Diplomatic Relations With Saudi Arabia

On March 10, Tehran and Riyadh, under China’s auspices, issued a trilateral declaration, which among other things restores diplomatic relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia. Since the announcement, Iranian officials and the state-censored media have been struggling to find an appropriate grimace for the occasion. In particular, Kayhan newspaper, a mouthpiece of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, which previously cheered Saudi Arabia’s severing of diplomatic relations with Iran in 2016, is now trying to turn resumption of relations into criticism of former President Hassan Rouhani, rather than admit its impolitic cheer when the two countries severed diplomatic relations. Javan newspaper, a mouthpiece of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, in a terse but more honest reaction, admitted that severing diplomatic relations did not benefit anyone.  

• March 10: Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs Hossein Amir-Abdollahian tweeted: “Returning to natural relations between the Islamic Republic of Iran and Saudi Arabia provides both countries with great potential in the region and in the Islamic world. The policy of good neighborly relations remains the key principle in the foreign policy of the Cabinet, and the diplomatic machinery is actively taking further strides in the region.” 
• March 12: In his first comments on the Iran-Saudi Arabia agreement, Parliamentary Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf said, as quoted by Hamshahri Online: “The Islamic Republic has pursued the policy of securing stability and security in the region, and in the Persian Gulf, without foreign interference. This agreement illustrated that intervention of these powers was the main driver of regional conflicts … We hope Saudi Arabia acts vigilantly and in a longsighted manner when it comes to the dangers emanating from the totalitarian and anti-Islam Zionist regime.” 
• March 12: Major General Yahya Rahim Safavi, senior advisor to Khamenei and former IRGC chief, said, as quoted by Mashregh News: “This agreement is like a political earthquake ending American hegemony in the region … The Chinese want to become the world’s largest economy by 2023 … Saudi Arabia is the largest supplier of oil to China, and China’s strategic agreement with Iran concerning development of our infrastructure, too, was a significant agreement.” 
• March 12: Nour News, a mouthpiece of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, claimed the agreement between Iran and Saudi Arabia “illustrates Washington’s poor strategic maneuverability in West Asia … which is now being exploited by the Chinese.” 
• March 12: Mashregh News, which is close to the IRGC, in a commentary suggested the agreement “shows it is also possible to resume neighborly and Islamic relations with countries like Egypt and Jordan.” 
• March 12: Abbas Abdi, in a column for Etemad wrote: “What is China’s role in the agreement between Iran and Saudi Arabia? Fundamentally, why was China needed as a mediator? Did Iraq or Oman play the role of mediator in the past? Why didn’t they succeed, and why are interlocutors needed? After all, what was wrong with direct talks …? Perhaps this is about the strength of cooperation, meaning this is not just an agreement between Iran and Saudi Arabia, but a trilateral agreement, which makes good sense when looking at China’s strategic cooperation with both countries … Additionally, the agreement can be guaranteed by China, which is stronger than the other two parties … Finally, the agreement is important for all three countries: It brings Iran out of diplomatic isolation … and it makes Saudi Arabia less dependent on the West and the United States. Saudi Arabia’s relations with Israel would have achieved the opposite by making it more dependent on the West.” 
• March 12: Javan newspaper, a mouthpiece of the IRGC, limited its coverage of the trilateral declaration to a few short sentences on page 2: “After seven years, diplomatic problems between Iran and Saudi Arabia were solved through China’s mediation, and within two months, diplomatic relations will resume. Establishing diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia is good news, which made it to the top of the global news. Severance of relations had, and still has, no benefit for these two countries.” 
• March 12: In a Kayhan editorial, under the headline “Why Are You So Sad?,” Hossein Shariatmadari turned the resumption of diplomatic relations between Tehran and Riyadh into an opportunity to attack former President Hassan Rouhani: “Mr. Rouhani’s Cabinet, and all Cabinets, in which claimants of reforms played leading roles, used to tie any foreign policy initiative to the preferences of the United States and its European allies. Time and again, they bluntly said nothing can be done in the region without the acquiescence of the ‘village head,’ His Excellency Rouhani’s term for the United States. In this agreement, however, the United States and its allies were removed from the equation.” 

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