Al-Monitor- When former Iranian President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani died Jan. 8, much was made of the absence of a message of condolence from Saudi Arabia. This was especially stark since Rafsanjani personally enjoyed good relations with many Arab leaders and had played a key role in the Saudi-Iranian rapprochement in the years after the end of the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq War. Indeed, rulers in Arab states such as Bahrain, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Oman all sent messages of condolence upon the death of a man described as a �pillar� of Iran�s 1979 Islamic Revolution.

On Jan. 24, Entekhab News reported that Saudi Arabia�s King Salman bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud had indeed expressed his sympathy over the demise of Rafsanjani�� in a letter addressed only to his family. In the message, which was reportedly relayed to the Iranian mission at the Organization of Islamic Cooperation on Jan. 12, Salman described Rafsanjani as �honorable� and wished for God to grant �patience� to the family of the late ayatollah.

News of the so-far unreported message of condolence surfaced as Kuwait�s Foreign Minister Sabah Al-Khalid Al-Sabah paid a visit to Iran for the first time in two years. According to a Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) report on Jan. 12, the foreign minister is apparently tasked with passing on a message from the Gulf Cooperation Council to Iranian officials.
Read more here