Saudi crown prince congratulates new Iranian president

Saudi Arabia’s crown prince on Wednesday called Iranian president-elect Masoud Pezeshkian to congratulate him on winning the election, Saudi state media reported.

Mohammed bin Salman and Pezeshkian “praised the development of relations between the two countries at various levels, stressing the importance of continuing to enhance cooperation in various fields,” the official Saudi Press Agency reported.

The Saudi king had also sent a congratulatory message to Pezeshkian following his election in early July.

King Salman bin Abdulaziz had expressed hope for the “continued development of relations which link our two countries and our two brotherly peoples,” SPA said at the time.

After a seven-year rupture, Sunni Muslim-majority Saudi Arabia and Shia-dominated Iran resumed relations under a surprise China-brokered deal announced in March last year.

Since then, signs of rapprochement have ramped up between the two regional powers, despite each supporting different camps in several conflicts, most notably in Syria and Yemen.

The two exchanged ambassadors and visits of foreign ministers, before the late Ebrahim Raisi made the first visit by an Iranian president to the kingdom in 20 years to attend a joint Arab-Islamic summit to discuss the conflict in Gaza last November.

Pezeshkian is a heart surgeon whose only previous government experience was as health minister about two decades ago. The death of ultraconservative president Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash necessitated the election, which was not due until 2025.

Pezeshkian is considered a “reformist” in Iran, and was the only candidate from that camp allowed to stand in the election, for which all contenders were approved by Iran’s Guardian Council.

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has the final say on all major policy issues in the country.