Iran appoints 1st envoy to UAE since 2016 thaw

Iran on Tuesday appointed its first ambassador to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) since 2016 and restructured ties between the Gulf countries and Iran, Dawn reported.
Iranian state media said Reza Ameri, Iran’s newly appointed ambassador, had served as director general of the Iranian Diaspora Office at the Foreign Ministry.
In August last year, the UAE upgraded its ties with Iran and announced the return of its ambassador to Tehran, a significant change in their previously strained ties.
The UAE downgraded ties with Iran in January 2016 after Saudi Arabia severed ties with Iran, Dawn reported.
Hostilities between Iran and Saudi Arabia have previously threatened stability and security in the Gulf, and fueled conflict in the Middle East from Yemen to Syria.
However, in a significant breakthrough last month, Riyadh announced it would reset ties with Tehran in a China-brokered deal, a step-change in years of hostility between the two countries.
The UAE, which has trade and business ties with Iran for more than a century, began re-engaging with Tehran in 2019 following attacks on Gulf waters and Saudi energy sites, Dawn reported.
The UAE Emirate of Dubai has long been Iran’s main link to the outside world.
Meanwhile, the top envoys of Saudi Arabia and Iran will meet in Beijing on Thursday, an Iranian official and a Saudi-owned newspaper said, as the two regional rivals seek to complete the next steps of their diplomatic rapprochement between the China-broker deal. work for. , reported Dawn.
The meeting between Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud and his Iranian counterpart, Hossein Amirabadolhian, will be the first formal meeting between the most senior diplomats of Saudi Arabia and Iran in more than seven years.