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Another Significant Saudi Visit to Tehran:
The April 17 visit of Saudi Defense Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman to Iran, during which he met with Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, President Masoud Pezeshkian, and Armed Forces Chief of Staff Major General Mohammad Bagheri, strongly signals both countries’ willingness to move closer at a particularly tense moment in the region, as the two neighboring states face similar challenges.
Since the normalization of their diplomatic relations in March 2023, followed by a Saudi delegation’s visit to Tehran in April 2023 to discuss the reopening of diplomatic missions, there have been two notable visits by Saudi officials to Iran prior to this one. In June 2023, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan visited Tehran, marking a major step in re-establishing diplomatic ties, then in November 2024, the Chief of Staff of Saudi Arabia’s Armed Forces, Fayyad al-Ruwaili, met in Tehran with his Iranian counterpart, Bagheri’s deputy for Intelligence and Security of the Armed Forces General Staff, Gholamreza Mehrabi, to discuss defense diplomacy and bilateral cooperation with the aim of strengthening regional security and stability.
Purpose and Content of the Visit:
The Saudi Defense Minister delivered a personal letter from the King Salman bin Abdulaziz. According to Amwaj.media, the letter addressed key issues such as bilateral security, Iran’s ongoing negotiations with the U.S., the situation in Palestine and Yemen, and expressed a strong desire to strengthen ties with its long-standing regional rival.
Ayatollah Khamenei posted on X: “It’s much better if the brothers in the West Asian region cooperate and assist each other instead of depending on others», while Prince Khalid bin Salman wrote: “During the meeting, I delivered a letter from the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques and conveyed the leadership’s greetings. We discussed our bilateral relations and topics of mutual interest”.
On the topic of bilateral security, Amwaj.media reported that the Kingdom agreed to a gradual approach to building security cooperation with Iran, an initiative that began during the normalization process, which included five rounds of talks hosted by Iraq and ultimately culminated in the Chinese-brokered agreement of 2023. Previously, in 2001, the two countries had signed a security cooperation agreement, and its reimplementation was included in the 2023 Sino-Saudi-Iranian joint statement that announced the restoration of diplomatic relations, that had been interrupted in 2016 following attacks on the Saudi embassy in Tehran during protests over the execution of a Shiite dissident cleric in Saudi Arabia. Military matters have been a significant component of Saudi-Iranian interactions since 2023, as demonstrated by the discussions between Al-Ruwaili and Bagheri in November 2024 concerning the development of defense cooperation to strengthen regional security and stability; during those talks, Bagheri also proposed that Saudi Arabia join Iran in naval drills or participate as an observer.
Regarding Iran’s ongoing negotiations with the U.S., Saudi Arabia has most likely played an indirect role in facilitating the easing of tensions between the two countries. What is certain, however, is that an open endorsement by Saudi Arabia of a potential nuclear agreement between Iran and the U.S, as reportedly expressed by King Salman, would mark a radical shift from the Kingdom’s position in 2015 during the negotiation and signing of the JCPOA. At that time, Saudi Arabia, alongside Israel, actively sought to block the deal, primarily out of concern that the lifting of sanctions would boost Iran’s economy, and, consequently, its influence in the region.
Saudi Arabia has offered direct support for the mediation between Iran and the U.S. taking place mainly in Oman, even proposing to host an informal meeting between officials of both countries while President Trump is expected to visit Riyadh from May 13 to 16, and then Qatar and the UAE. Saudi Arabia will be the first country visited by the U.S. President during his second mandate, following his visit to the Vatican for the Pope’s funeral. According to Reuters, he is expected to offer Saudi Arabia an arms package valued at over $100 billion, as part of a broader defense pact that the Biden administration failed to finalize within the framework of a planned normalization of relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel. However, President Trump cannot expect any further progress from the Kingdom regarding normalization with Israel under the “Abraham Accords”: Saudi Arabia has reiterated, most recently during the April visit to Tehran, that it will not normalize relations with Israel without the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.
Regarding the Houthis, King Salman reportedly asked Iran to help contain the Yemeni rebel movement in order to reduce tensions in the Red Sea, a move that could also support the ongoing Iran-US negotiations. Ansar Allah was re-designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) by the US Department of State in January 2025, and since President Trump’s return to office, U.S. strikes against the Houthis have intensified. Though part of broader efforts to counter Iran’s regional influence, the strategic logic and objectives of these operations have recently been questioned and debated within the American government.
What the Visit Reveals and Why It Matters:
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