Saudi armed forces chief of staff in Iran for talks with officials

DUBAI (Reuters) -The chief of staff of Saudi Arabia's armed forces, Fayyad al-Ruwaili, visited Tehran on Sunday to meet with his Iranian counterpart and discuss defence ties, state media reported the Iranian Armed Forces General Staff as saying.

The visit follows the election of Donald Trump, who will take office for a second term as U.S. President in January, and who has promised to bring peace to the Middle East.

During his first term, Trump initiated normalisations between Arab states and Iran's regional arch-enemy Israel, known as the Abraham Accords.

Saudi Arabia has not established ties with Israel, but Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner has discussed the possibility with Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman multiple times over the last years, a source familiar with the discussions told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

Iran's state media said al-Ruwaili headed a high-level Saudi military delegation in Tehran and met Armed Forces Chief of Staff Major General Mohammad Bagheri.

Iranian state media said the two military officials discussed various issues, including "the development of defence diplomacy and the expansion of bilateral cooperation".

State media added that Bagheri held a phone call with Saudi Arabia's Defence Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman Al Saud last year to discuss regional developments and improve defence cooperation between the two countries.

Separately, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian spoke with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on the phone, Iranian media said.

Pezeshkian told the crown prince he would not be able to attend a summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Riyadh due to his busy schedule, and would be dispatching the Iranian first vice president as a representative, the Mehr news agency said.

Tehran and Riyadh agreed in March 2023, via Chinese intermediation, to re-establish relations after seven years of hostility that had threatened stability and security in the Gulf and helped to fuel conflicts in the Middle East from Yemen to Syria.

(Reporting by Dubai Newsroom, Editing by Louise Heavens, Barbara Lewis and Giles Elgood)