Alireza Enaiti, the ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran to Saudi Arabia, made the remarks in an exclusive interview with IRNA on Sunday.

Referring to his meeting with Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian before starting his official work in Saudi Arabia, said, “I am about to leave for Riyadh with the honorable minister of foreign affairs. I received his meeting and recommendations regarding the development and strengthening of relations with Saudi Arabia. We hope to be able to advance these relations within the framework of the principle of neighborliness, which is the concern of President Ebrahim Raisi.

“We are at the beginning of the road, we started our relations on March 10 and we have passed six hard months and we were able to advance the organization and structuring of work together,” he said.

“In the past six months, we have opened the embassies and consulates of the two countries, the exchange of diplomatic personnel has been carried out, the official declaration of relations has been made, the foreign ministries of the two countries have met in each other’s capitals, and the next step, which is the exchange of ambassadors, will be done, God willing.”

Exchange of ambassadors of Iran and Saudi Arabia

Enayati, announcing the beginning of his mission, said that God willing, “I will leave for Riyadh on Tuesday, and according to the information received from the honorable ambassador of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to Tehran”, he will also travel to Iran in the same period of time.

“I think the relations between the two countries have progressed well in terms of formation, but based on the principle of neighborliness, which was emphasized by him in the recent meeting of the government with Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, this is a prelude to more work at the bilateral and multilateral level,” he added.

Enayati further said that he hoped to be able to move forward within the framework of this policy and advance these relations with Saudi Arabia in various bilateral, political, economic, security, commercial, investment, cultural, popular, tourism dimensions, as well as in regional and multilateral sectors.