Baghdad: Iran and Bahrain have agreed to start negotiations on how to resume diplomatic relations that have been severed between them for 8 years, according to what the Iranian Foreign Ministry announced today, Monday.
This announcement comes on the sidelines of a rare visit by Bahraini Foreign Minister, Abdullatif bin Rashid Al-Zayani, to Tehran to participate in the “Asian Cooperation Dialogue” forum.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry stated that “during a meeting with his Iranian counterpart Ali Bagheri, “the two sides agreed to establish the necessary mechanisms to start talks between the two countries to study how to resume political relations between them.
After the Saudi agreement mediated by China and then the return of full diplomatic representation with the UAE last year, Bahrain remained the only Gulf state that does not have official relations with Iran.
Bahrain severed diplomatic relations with Iran in 2016, against the backdrop of the sabotage of the Saudi Embassy in Tehran and the Saudi consulat
e in Mashhad (northwest) by demonstrators protesting Riyadh’s execution of the Saudi opposition Shiite cleric, Nimr al-Nimr.
Iran and Saudi Arabia resumed their relations in March 2023 under an agreement sponsored by China.
Tehran has since been trying to restore diplomatic relations with other Arab countries, such as Egypt.
Al-Zayani visited Iran last May to participate in the funeral of President Ebrahim Raisi, Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian and their companions who died in a helicopter crash on May 19 in northwestern Iran.
Source: National Iraqi News Agency