Foreign Minister of Iran Mohammad Javad Zarif reacts during a family photo session at the Caspian Sea littoral states conference in Moscow, April 22, 2014. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov
DUBAI (Reuters) - Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Sunday he could not take up an invitation to visit regional rival Saudi Arabia because the proposed dates clashed with planned nuclear negotiations between Iran and world powers.
On May 10, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said Riyadh had invited Zarif, hinting at the possibility of a thaw between two bitter rivals whose struggle for influence is evident in conflicts throughout the Middle East. "It is not possible for me to attend," the official IRNA news agency quoted Zarif as saying, explaining that the event to which he had been invited in the kingdom, an Organisation of Islamic Cooperation meeting, coincided with the nuclear talks.
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