CAIRO (Reuters) -Iran and Sudan agreed on Monday to restore diplomatic relations, both said in a joint statement, seven years after they were severed and three months after a meeting between their foreign ministers.
Sudan, currently in the midst of a devastating war, cut diplomatic ties with Iran in 2016 following the storming of the Saudi Arabian embassy in Tehran.
Saudi Arabia and Iran agreed to resume ties in March under a deal negotiated by China, raising expectations that Tehran and other Arab countries would fully re-establish diplomatic relations.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran and the Republic of Sudan decided to resume their diplomatic relations …the two sides also agreed to take the necessary measures to open their embassies in the near future and to exchange official delegations,” the statement said.
The decision “came after a number of high-level communications between the two countries and will serve their mutual interests”, the Sudanese foreign ministry said.
(Reporting by Khalid Abdelaziz, writing by Omar Abdel-Razek and Nafisa Eltahir and Dubai newsroom, editing by Susan Fenton and Gareth Jones)