March 08, 2017•Update: March 09, 2017
DOHA, Qatar
Emir of Qatar Tamim Bin Hamad al-Thani on Wednesday received Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in Doha.
The two men discussed bilateral relations and regional developments, Qatar’s official news agency reported without elaborating.
Zarif’s visit to Doha comes amid an apparent thaw in relations between Iran and the Gulf States.
In a landmark visit to Tehran earlier this year, Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sabah al-Khalid al-Sabah stressed the importance of Gulf-Iranian relations.
And last month, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani went on a tour of the Gulf that included stopovers in both Oman and Kuwait.
In the past, members of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council had frequently accused Iran of meddling in their domestic affairs -- claims denied by Tehran.
The Gulf States fear Tehran’s nuclear energy program poses a threat to regional security. Tehran, for its part, says its nuclear program is entirely peaceful in nature.
Tension had mounted between the Gulf and Iran after Riyadh severed diplomatic ties with Tehran early last year.
The move came after two Saudi diplomatic missions in Iran were attacked by protesters following the execution of a prominent Shia cleric by the Saudi authorities.
Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies also accuse Tehran of supporting Yemen’s Shia Houthi militia group, which overran Yemeni capital Sanaa and other parts of the country in 2014.
The ongoing conflict in Syria, meanwhile, in which the Gulf States and Iran support opposing sides, had also contributed to the deterioration of Gulf-Iran ties.
*Reporting by Ahmed Youssef; Writing by Ali Abo Rezeg
