IRAN SAYS TALKS WITH REGIONAL RIVAL SAUDI ARABIA RESUMED

Rival regional powers Iran and Saudi Arabia resumed talks in the Iraqi capital after they were suspended in March, Iran’s semi-official Nour News reported on Saturday.

There was no confirmation from Saudi Arabia or Iraq on the resumption of the talks.

“The latest positive meeting has raised hopes for the two countries to take steps toward the resumption of ties,” said Nour News, which is affiliated with the country’s Supreme National Security Council. It did not say when the fifth round of talks were held.

Riyadh severed ties with Tehran in 2016 after Iranian protesters stormed the Saudi embassy in the Iranian capital following the execution of a Shi’ite cleric in Saudi Arabia.

Iran suspended the talks in March without giving a reason for the decision that came as a new round of negotiations was due to start. The move came after Saudi Arabia executed 81 men in its biggest mass execution in decades. Tehran condemned the executions that activists said included 41 Shi’ite Muslims.

Predominantly Sunni Muslim Saudi Arabia and Shi’ite Iran, which are locked in proxy conflicts around the region, started direct talks last year to try to contain tensions.

Saudi Arabia and Iran have backed opposing sides in regional conflicts and political disputes in Syria, Lebanon and Iraq for years, and Saudi Arabia has led an Arab coalition waging war against the Iran-aligned Houthi movement in Yemen since 2015.

Saudi Arabia executed 81 men including seven Yemenis and one Syrian on Saturday, the interior ministry said, in the kingdom’s biggest mass execution in decades.

The number dwarfed the 67 executions reported there in all of 2021 and the 27 in 2020.

Offences ranged from joining militant groups to holding “deviant beliefs”, the ministry said in a statement.

“These individuals, totalling 81, were convicted of various crimes including murdering innocent men, women and children,” the statement read.

“Crimes committed by these individuals also include pledging allegiance to foreign terrorist organisations, such as ISIS (Islamic State), al-qaeda and the Houthis,” it added.

The ministry did not say how the executions were carried out. The men included 37 Saudi nationals who were found guilty in a single case for attempting to assassinate security officers and targeting police stations and convoys, the statement added.