File Photo: Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif (Reuters)
Iran's foreign minister says he is ready to meet his Saudi Arabian counterpart on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in September and to visit the Gulf powerhouse later this year.
Mohammad Javad Zarif's remarks at a press conference on Sunday come amid a slight diplomatic warming between Sunni-majority Saudi Arabia and Shiite-majority Iran, which are fiercely divided over the civil war in Syria and other regional conflicts.
Zarif's deputy visited Saudi Arabia last week and met Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal, in the highest-level bilateral talks between the two Middle East powers since Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, a moderate, was elected last year.