JEDDAH: Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal discussed on Tuesday regional developments and the fight against Islamic State jihadists with a senior Iranian official visiting his country’s longtime regional rival, an Iranian diplomat said.

The visit by Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian to the city of Jeddah was the first by a high-level official from Iran to Saudi Arabia since Hassan Rouhani became the Islamic republic’s president in August last year.

The meeting was “fruitful”, Iran’s representative at the Jeddah-based Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Riza Hamid Dahqani said.

The diplomat, who attended the meeting, said that the two men discussed relations between both “neighbours”, regional developments and “the challenges facing the region such as extremism and Israel’s savage aggression” on Gaza Strip.

They particularly discussed the situation “in Iraq and means to confront extremism and terrorism,” said Dahqani, referring to IS jihadists, operating in Syria and Iraq.

The Iranian diplomat did not elaborate on how Saudi and Iran could cooperate to stop the advance of the jihadists.

The meeting comes as US media reported that Washington, which has launched air raids in northern Iraq against IS, could consider similar action against the group’s fighters in Syria.

Published in Dawn, August 27th, 2014