Iran welcomes normalisation of ties with Saudi Arabia: Iranian FM

Tehran, March 27 (IANS) Iran's Foreign Minister has said Tehran welcomes normalisation of relations with Riyadh and hopes the Saudi side will play a more constructive role to this end, official news agency IRNA reported.

"If we aim to reach a new stage in the talks with Saudi Arabia, all dimensions and aspects must be taken into consideration," Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said on Saturday during a televised interview following his visits to Syria and Lebanon.

Regarding the situation in Yemen, Amir-Abdollahian added that Saudi Arabia has received a number of requests from Iran to cease the war in Yemen, Xinhua news agency reported.

Iran is opposed to war and its spread over Yemen, as it is in no one's interest to continue the conflict, he said.

Over the past months, Iran and Saudi Arabia held several rounds of talks brokered by Iraq, following which Iran sent three diplomats to Saudi Arabia in January as a delegation to the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation to resume activities in Jeddah after a six-year hiatus.

Earlier in March, however, Iran announced it had "temporarily" suspended normalisation talks with Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia severed diplomatic ties with Iran in early 2016 in protest against the attacks on its diplomatic missions in Iran following the kingdom's execution of a Shiite cleric.