(Reuters) -Iransaid on Tuesday it was ready for "straight talks" withSaudi Arabiaover contentious issues that have kept the rival Gulf powers at loggerheads for more than three decades.Relations between Tehran and Riyadh soured after Iran's 1979 revolution brought to power Shi'ite clerics opposed to the conservative Sunni Muslim kingdom.
The two countries, struggling for regional influence and power, have backed opposite sides in theSyriaandYemenconflicts and argued over global oil prices.
An Iranian official said this week Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif delayed a visit toSaudi Arabiain protest against Riyadh's refusal to cut crude output and help lift prices.
But Admiral Ali Shamkhani, a top security aide to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said his country "is now quite ready to for straight, clear and continuous talks spanning the whole range of mutual interests withSaudi Arabia."
"In light of unprecedented human and financial losses caused by sectarian conflicts, (we) need to stop further bloodshed and wage an earnest fight against extremism and terrorism that has found expression in Daesh (Islamic State)", Shamkhani told Iran's ambassador toSaudiArabia, according to state news agency IRNA.
By Reuters
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