After eight years, Iranian pilgrims are said to restart regular travel to Saudi Arabia as early as next week
Iran said it was lifting visa requirements for 33 countries, including Gulf states like Saudi Arabia with which Tehran had frosty relations for years until a recent rapprochement, the Iranian Students News Agency said on Thursday.
“The ministry of tourism believes that an open-door policy will showcase Iran’s determination to engage with different countries of the world,” the semi-official ISNA reported.
The decision will increase to 45 the number of countries or territories whose citizens can visit Iran without needing to obtain a visa, it said.
The move is another step towards thawing relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia in particular after years of tension between the two oil-producing Gulf rivals. Riyadh and Tehran have aligned themselves with warring parties in Syria, Iraq and Yemen in the past decade.
Attacks on Saudi oil infrastructure, which Western officials blame on Iran and its Arab proxy forces, threatened in recent years to send the Middle East into further conflict. Iran denied involvement in those attacks.
Iran and Saudi agreed to restore full diplomatic relations, severed in 2016, under a Chinese-mediated agreement in March.
Nationals of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar are included in the decision to waive visa requirements, in addition to Bahrain, with whom Tehran has not yet re-established full ties.
ISNA gave a full list of the countries, which included Lebanon, Tunisia, India, several Central Asian, African, and “Muslim” nations. Croatia is the only Western-allied European nation on the list.
The new step is also said to allow Iranian pilgrims for the first time in eight years to begin regular travel to Saudi Arabia from December 19, Iranian media reported on Wednesday.
The development comes amid intensified hostilities from the Iran-backed Houthis in the Red Sea. Saudi Arabia was earlier reported to have urged the United States to exercise restraint in response to the group’s actions in the region.
Another context of the new visa regulation is rapprochement in the Iran-Russia relations. Earlier on Tuesday, Russian Foreign Ministry announced a “major” bilateral agreement with Tehran.
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