Iran needs smart realism in relations with Saudi Arabia: expert
Afifeh Abedi, an expert on foreign policy issues, has underlined the need for Iran to be more realistic in its relations with Saudi Arabia.
“Despite Iran's will to develop relations with Saudi Arabia, it has not yet been able to manage unrealistic expectations of the relationship and move towards a consistent pragmatic approach and better exploitation of this relationship in the short and long term,” she said in an exclusive interview with ILNA.
Abedi added, “Iran needs intelligent realism in relations with Saudi Arabia, which will give Iran a lot of weight in regional and international trends.”
The expert noted, “Saudi Arabia has a more realistic approach to this relationship. Perhaps the pragmatic approach of Riyadh in relations with Tehran can be defined in the form of interaction-restraint and competition approach.”
She also touched on Iran’s relations with the Republic of Azerbaijan, saying Tehran and Baku have come to the conclusion that the disruption of relations is not in their interest.
“Obviously, the opening in relations with the Republic of Azerbaijan after a period of tension was the result of reaching the understanding that the destruction of relations between Tehran and Baku is not in the interest of either side,” she said.