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Saudi Arabia and Iran started working this week on reopening their embassies in Tehran and Riyadh.

Why it matters: The step is a key element in the normalization process between the countries, which started several weeks ago after Saudi and Iranian officials signed a China-mediated agreement to reestablish diplomatic relations.

Driving the news: The Saudi and Iranian foreign ministers met last Thursday in Beijing the first such meeting in seven years.

State of play: Alireza Enayati, the head of the Iranian Foreign Ministrys Gulf department, told the Iranian press that the aim is to reopen the embassy in Riyadh and the consulate in Jeddah before the beginning of the hajj pilgrimage in June.

The big picture: White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan spoke on the phone on Tuesday with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and discussed the normalization process between Saudi Arabia and Iran.

Worth noting: Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad arrived in Riyadh on Wednesday. It's the first visit by a Syrian foreign minister in more than a decade.

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Saudi Arabia and Iran hope to reopen embassies before the hajj - Axios

MOSCOW, April 11 (Reuters) - Russia started fuel exports to Iran by rail this year for the first time after traditional buyers shunned trade with Moscow, according to three industry sources and exports data.

Russia and Iran, both under Western sanctions, are forging closer ties in order to support their economies and to undermine Western sanctions which both Moscow and Tehran cast as unjustified.

Western sanctions on Russian oil products over what Moscow calls its "special military operation" in Ukraine have reshaped global fuel markets with tankers taking longer routes and suppliers choosing exotic destinations and ways of transportation.

Iran has been under Western sanctions for years with limited access to global markets.

The oil ministries of Russia and Iran did not reply to requests for comment.

Last autumn Russia's Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak announced the start of swap supplies of oil products with Iran, but actual shipments only started this year, Reuters sources said.

In February and March Russia supplied up to 30,000 tonnes of gasoline and diesel to Iran, two sources familiar with the export data told Reuters.

A third source confirmed the trade but was not able to confirm the volumes.

All the volumes were supplied by rail from Russia via Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan. One of the sources said that some gasoline cargoes were sent on from Iran to neighbouring states, including Iraq, by truck.

Iran is an oil producer and has its own refineries, but recently its consumption had exceeded domestic fuel production, especially in its northern provinces, a trader in Central Asian oil products market said.

Russia had supplied small volumes of fuel to Iran by tanker via the Caspian Sea, as was the case in 2018, two traders familiar with the matter said.

Russian oil companies are currently interested in exporting diesel and gasoline to Iran by rail as exports by sea face high freight rates and a price cap imposed by the G7 countries.

However the rail exports face bottlenecks along the route, the sources said.

"We expect fuel supplies to Iran to rise this year, but we already see several issues with logistics due to rail congestion. That may keep exports from booming," one of the sources familiar with supplies to Iran said.

Editing by Guy Faulconbridge and Jason Neely

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Exclusive: Russia starts fuel supplies to Iran by rail -sources - Reuters

The on-again, off-again talks between Iran and western powers over Tehrans nuclear program have stalled yet again due to disagreements between the two sides.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has blamed Iran for killing an opportunity to come back to the negotiating table and maintained the talks were no longer a priority for the Biden administration.

Iran, meanwhile, seems to be inching closer to being able to actually build a nuclear weapon.

Inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency have said Iran had enriched uranium up to 84%, just short of the 90% required for a bomb.

And General Mark Milley, the US chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Congress in late March that Iran could have enough fissile material to make a bomb in less than two weeks and a nuclear weapon itself within several months.

Given these developments, is there any room left for an agreement?

Over the past two years, both the US and European Union have been resolute in their efforts to revive the nuclear deal that had been scrapped by then-US President Donald Trump in 2018, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

However, Western attempts have yet to bear fruit, reportedly due to the maximalist demands made by the Iranians, including removing the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps from the US list of foreign terror organisations.

Despite this, the EU believes the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action remains the only way for addressing Irans nuclear program. The US, despite de-prioritising the talks, is also not willing to officially announce the death of the deal.

This tunnel vision, however, seems to ignore the changes that have taken place since 2015, as well as the more general pattern of decision-making in Iran.

Although backers of the deal often argue it has significantly restricted Irans nuclear capabilities, Tehrans nuclear program has actually expanded in just two years. And recently, a news outlet affiliated with the Revolutionary Guards made it clear that Iran cannot close its doors to the scientific methods of making a bomb for rational reasons.

Now, the big question is what Irans leaders will do next. The CIA director, William Burns, said in February that he believes Irans Supreme Leader has not yet made a decision on building nuclear weapons.

So, what is the Iranian leadership thinking? To answer a question like this, the pattern of decision-making in Irans history is a critical factor that has widely been ignored.

Since the 1979 revolution, Iranian leaders have exhibited a cautious and slow approach to making major decisions.

This protracted process of decision-making in Iran is rooted in anxiety about the long-term survival of the regime, which has been grappling with a range of internal and external threats over the past four decades.

For instance, it took eight years for the Islamic Republic to accept the ceasefire and peace talks with Iraq following their war in the 1980s.

In addition, Iranian authorities took a decade to be ready for serious negotiations on a nuclear agreement with the US and other global powers, following the disclosure of the countrys nuclear program in 2003.

Moreover, while Iran first suggested a look to the East policy in the mid-2000s under then-President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the country didnt begin developing major policies in this direction until 2015. This has included military cooperation with Russia in both Syria and now Ukraine and a long-term economic, military and security agreement with China.

However, building nuclear weapons would certainly be the most consequential strategic decision by the Iranian leadership since the 1979 revolution.

So far, the slow process of decision-making in the Iranian leadership has played a significant role in hindering the weaponisation of the nuclear program.

And this limitation of the leadership could provide western powers with an opportunity, given the ongoing protests currently roiling the country.

The months-long protests erupted following the death of a woman in the custody of the morality police last year, hastening the decline of the regimes legitimacy inside the country and bringing new rounds of sanctions from the international community.

If western countries abandon their obsession over the revival of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action and continue to support the Iranian people in their protests through diplomatic and economic pressure, it will send a powerful signal to Irans leaders: the threats to the regimes existence are not limited to military factors, but also increasingly come from within the country.

It is important to note that amid the protests, Iranian officials and hardliner media have frequently stressed the nuclear deal is not dead and negotiations are ongoing, even though most of them had previously opposed any deal with the West.

This indicates the Islamic Republic would not be ready for the risks that the demise of the nuclear talks could bring namely, even fiercer protests from the public if it caused another economic shock.

Therefore, the longer the balance of power between the Iranian people and government remains unsettled, the more unlikely it is the regime will make a firm decision on nuclear weapons in the near term.

Consequently, this will provide the West with powerful leverage to secure a more robust and effective agreement in the long term.

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With Iran purportedly capable of making a nuclear bomb in a matter of months, what will its leaders do next? - The Conversation

Iranian authorities have said they will begin to identify and arrest women who ignore the mandatory hijab rules from next weekend in a bid to clamp down on women not covering their hair in public.

Since the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini after she was arrested by the morality police for allegedly not wearing her headscarf properly last September, one thing has changed in Iran: More and more women are out in public without veils.

This is despite it being a legal requirement under Iran's Islamic government.

For months, Iranian authorities have ignored violations of the deeply unpopular hijab law -- for fear of provoking further unrest -- but this is about to stop as discontent grows amongst hardliners.

The Ministry of the Interior recently called on citizens to reprimand women without hijabs, while the police chief has announced stricter measures to use video surveillance to identify those who violate the rules.

Under new plans, women who violate the rules will be taken to court andshop and restaurant owners who allow unveiled women to enter will be threatened with closure. Nevertheless, more and more women in Iran no longer want to submit to the strict dress codes.

Watch the video above to find out more.

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Iran to take harsher actions against women without hijab - Euronews

As Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi prepares to visit Saudi Arabia, AFP looks back at key moments in the relationship:

- 1979: Iran revolution -

When Iranian revolutionaries overthrow the US-backed shah in 1979 and form an Islamic republic, Sunni-led governments in the region accuse the Shiite state of seeking to "export" its revolution.

In 1980, Saddam Hussein's secular but Sunni-dominated regime in Iraq attacks neighbouring Iran, triggering an eight-year war in which oil-rich Saudi, a key US ally, supports Baghdad.

In July 1987, Saudi security forces in Mecca -- the holiest site in Islam -- crack down on an anti-US protest by Iranian pilgrims. More than 400 people are killed.

Demonstrators ransack the Saudi embassy in Tehran and, in April 1988, Riyadh breaks off diplomatic relations for several years.

From 2011 on, Iran and Saudi back opposing sides in Syria's civil war.

Tehran supports President Bashar al-Assad with military forces and funds, whereas Riyadh backs Sunni rebels but also joins a US-led coalition to fight Sunni extremists from the Islamic State group.

Saudi Arabia and Iran also take opposing sides in the Yemen war.

In 2015, a Saudi-led coalition launches a seven-year campaign of air strikes against the Iran-backed Huthi rebels who seized the capital Sanaa.

In January 2016, Saudi Arabia executes prominent Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr, a driving force behind anti-government protests, on "terrorism" charges.

Protesters attack Saudi diplomatic missions in Iran, and Riyadh again severs ties.

In November 2017, Saudi-backed Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri announces his resignation, citing Iran's "grip" on his country through the Shiite militant group Hezbollah.

Saudi Arabia is widely suspected of forcing his resignation, which he later recants.

In June 2017, Saudi Arabia and its allies sever ties with the tiny gas-rich Gulf monarchy of Qatar and impose a blockade on it, accusing Doha of being too close to Iran and backing extremism.

Under US pressure, Riyadh ends the embargo three years later.

In a surprise move, on March 10, 2023, Tehran and Riyadh announce Chinese-brokered plans to resume ties after seven years.

Days later, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi receives an invitation from Saudi Arabia's King Salman to visit.

On April 6, the Iranian and Saudi foreign ministers hold talks in Beijing, where they pledge to work together to bring "security and stability" to the Middle East.

On April 9, a Saudi delegation visits the Yemeni capital Sanaa to negotiate a new truce between the ousted government and Huthi rebels, raising hopes of a possible end to the war.

On April 9 and 12, Saudi and Iranian delegations visit each others' capitals to discuss reopening their respective diplomatic missions.

On April 12, Syria's foreign minister visits Saudi Arabia for the first high-level talks between Riyadh and the Iran-backed Syrian regime since the Syrian war started.

The aim of the visit is to "achieve a complete political settlement" to the Syrian crisis and to "bring back Syria to its Arab fold," the Saudi foreign ministry says.

Link:
Iran and Saudi Arabia: rivals seeking to restore ties - FRANCE 24 English