Saudi Arabia hopes that reconciliation with Iran will be the “origin” of a new era of stability for the region

MADRID, June 14 (EUROPA PRESS) –

The Government of Saudi Arabia hopes that the resumption of diplomatic relations with Iran will have repercussions not only in the countries directly involved, but will also be the “origin” of a new stage of stability for the entire region, to the extent that “peace it will also bring development,” according to royal adviser Abdullah bin Abdulaziz al Rabeha.

Al Rabeha, former Minister of Health and current head of the King Salman Center for Relief and Humanitarian Action – the main public aid institution in Saudi Arabia – has defended that Riyadh always seeks “regional stability”, a process in which he marks the recent reconciliation with Tehran after seven years of rupture.

In this sense, he has also defended maintaining contacts with potential sources of “destabilization”, with a view to changing the game in various regional sources of tension, such as Syria or Yemen. In the latter country, the Saudi authorities support the government of Abdu Rabbu Mansur Hadi in the face of attacks by the Houthis rebels, supported in turn by Iran.

Al Rabeha explained in a meeting with journalists in Madrid that the aid office he directs now has more and better humanitarian access to Yemen, but the objective is to go “further”, in such a way that progress can be made towards resolving the the conflicts. In the case of Yemen, a talks process has been resumed with the aim of signing a peace agreement to end the war that broke out in 2015.

The adviser, who has traveled to Spain to attend a forum of the Alliance for Vaccination (GAVI), has defended that Riyadh has made humanitarian aid a strategic commitment of the first order, which is already equivalent to 1.1 percent of the GDP in economic terms. The King Salman Center for Relief and Humanitarian Action is present in 92 countries and develops more than 2,400 projects.

In this sense, he hopes to forge new alliances with Spain, a country with which Saudi Arabia maintains “very good relations” and with which it shares “common values”, in the words of Al Rabeha, who hopes that his visit and the various contacts organized in Madrid during these days lay the foundations for some kind of formal collaboration agreement.

“The opportunities for mutual collaboration are high,” he insisted during the meeting. For the royal adviser, Spain and Saudi Arabia have a wide margin to “learn from each other”, among other reasons because they even share foci of interest: “It will only bring success on the ground.”