Tehran
Bahrain's Foreign Minister Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani attended the plenary session of the Ukraine Peace Summit in Burgenstock, a luxury resort near Lucerne, on June 15, 2024.
Iran's Foreign Ministry announced on Monday that Iran and Bahrain have agreed to begin negotiations to restore diplomatic ties that have been severed for about eight years.
The small Gulf state of Bahrain followed regional power Saudi Arabia in cutting diplomatic ties with Iran in 2016 after angry protesters stormed the Iranian diplomatic mission in Riyadh to denounce the Saudi execution of a prominent Shiite Muslim cleric.
Iran's Acting Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri met with his Bahraini counterpart Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani on Sunday on the sidelines of the Asia Cooperation Dialogue summit in Tehran, according to a statement from the Foreign Ministry.
“During the meeting, the two sides agreed to establish the necessary mechanisms to initiate bilateral consultations to explore ways to resume political relations,” it added.
Shiite-majority Iran and the Sunni Kingdom of Saudi Arabia are set to resume ties in 2023 under a China-brokered deal, marking a shift in regional alliances.
The visit marks the second by Bahrain's top diplomat within a month, after he attended the funerals of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdullahian, who were killed in a helicopter crash in May along with six others.
Presidential elections are due to take place on June 28, and the country's six presidential candidates have each offered different solutions to Western sanctions and diplomacy.
Under Raisi, Western governments have expanded sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program, its support for militant groups across the Middle East and its backing for Russia in the war in Ukraine.
