In an unannounced visit and only days after holding meetings in Washington, Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani met in Tehran Sunday with Iran’s President-elect Ebrahim Raisi.
Qatar’s top diplomat earlier met Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif for talks focusing on the “latest bilateral developments and important regional and international issues”, Iran’s foreign ministry said in a statement.
Al-Thani’s visit comes after he met US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Washington on Thursday.
During that meeting, the two reviewed “bilateral cooperation and regional developments, particularly in Afghanistan, Iran, Syria and Palestine”, according to the foreign ministry in Doha.
The Qatari diplomat also emphasized the “need for an open and transparent dialogue between GCC countries and Iran, to achieve stability in the region”.
After meeting Zarif, Al-Thani sat down with Raisi, in the first foreign meeting held by the latter after he won presidential elections last month.
Raisi said his administration’s priority in foreign policy will be relations with neighbors.
“Be certain that Iran wishes well for its neighbors,” he added.
Al-Thani’s visit to archrivals Washington and Tehran comes at a time when Iran has been engaged in talks with world powers in Vienna since April over reviving a 2015 nuclear accord, with the US taking part indirectly in the negotiations.
The talks aim to return the US to the deal it withdrew from in 2018 under former president Donald Trump by lifting the sanctions reimposed on Tehran, and to have Tehran return to full compliance with nuclear commitments it has gradually retreated from in retaliation for sanctions.
Al-Thani’s visit to Tehran also comes as Washington nears withdrawing from Afghanistan where Taliban has launched a largescale offensive, seizing large swathes of territory.
Doha is expected to host next week a new round of talks between the Taliban and Afghan government.
Tehran already welcomed this month representatives from the two sides and invited them to take “difficult decisions” to resolve the conflict.
