Kuwait City: Kuwait’s Emir Shaikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah flew to Tehran on Sunday for a landmark visit expected to focus on mending fences between Iran and the Gulf states.
The two-day visit comes amid a thaw in relations between Tehran and the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) that began after the election of moderate Hassan Rouhani as Iran’s president last June.
Shaikh Sabah, on his first visit to Tehran as head of state, leads a high-level delegation consisting of the ministers of foreign affairs, oil, finance, commerce and industry in addition to senior officials.
Kuwaiti officials said the visit will also focus on top regional issues, including Iran’s military involvement in Syria, the situation in Iraq and Egypt, and the Middle East peace process.
Relations between Iran and the Gulf, namely signs of rapprochement between Saudi Arabia and Iran, will also be discussed during the visit, foreign ministry under-secretary Khalid Al Jarallah told Al Hayat newspaper.
He said Kuwait, which currently holds the rotating presidency of the GCC, has balanced links with Tehran and is willing to mediate between Riyadh and Tehran.
Saudi Arabia and its GCC partners are deeply suspicious of Iran’s nuclear ambitions and wary of the talks under way between Tehran and Western powers aimed at striking a long-term compromise.
Riyadh is also at odds with Iran over the Syria war, in which Tehran backs the government, as well as its involvement in Iraq, Bahrain and other countries in the region.
Last month, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al Faisal invited his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif to visit Riyadh. Zarif accepted the invitation but no date has yet been set for the visit.
Saudi Arabia has also invited Iran to attend a two-day meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation that opens on June 18 in Jeddah, with Tehran welcoming the invite as a “friendly” gesture.
In December, Zarif toured Kuwait, the UAE, Oman and Qatar, but skipped Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.
Kuwait’s ambassador to Tehran, Majdi Al Dhafiri, told the official Kuna news agency that Shaikh Sabah will discuss with the Iranian president a number of “strategic projects” useful for the whole region. He did not elaborate.
