Iran and Saudi Arabia have had no diplomatic relations following the attack on the Saudi embassy in Tehran in January 2016 after Saudi Arabia executed Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, a Shia cleric.

Bilateral relations between the countries have been strained over several geopolitical issues such as the interpretations of Islam, aspirations for leadership of the Islamic world, oil export policy and relations with the United States and other Western countries.

Saudi Arabia is an Islamist Salafi absolute monarchy established in 1932, with a post-World War II tradition of close ties to the United States and the United Kingdom.

Modern Iran was previously a Twelver Shia constitutional monarchy founded in 1925 but became a revolutionary Islamic republic in 1979, with a political system that includes elements of a presidential democracy vetted and supervised by a theocracy governed by a “Supreme Leader”.

Both states were aligned with the Western Bloc in the Cold War preventing Soviet influence in these countries.

Both countries are major oil and gas exporters and have clashed over energy policy.

Saudi Arabia, with its large oil reserves and smaller population, has a greater interest in taking a long-term view of the global oil market and incentive to moderate prices.

In contrast, Iran is compelled to focus on high prices in the short term due to its low standard of living given recent sanctions after its decade-old war with Saddam’s Iraq and its larger population.

In the Syrian Civil War, Iran has supported the Syrian government militarily and with billions of dollars of aid, while Saudi Arabia was a major supplier of aid to rebel groups.

After a few years of discussion and several years of having suspended relations, Iran and Saudi Arabia announced that they would restore diplomatic relations and reopen their embassies in 2023 after a deal brokered by China.

There were international efforts going on to normalize the relations between two countries following the crisis which started with the execution of Sheikh Nimr.

In 2016, Pakistan’s prime minister Nawaz Sharif and Chief of Army Staff Raheel Sharif visited Riyadh and Tehran, following high level visits from Saudi Arabia to Islamabad.

Pakistan’s opposition leader Imran Khan visited the embassies of Iran and Saudi Arabia and met their head of commissions in Islamabad on 8 January 2016 to understand their stance regarding the conflict.

He urged the Government of Pakistan to play a positive role to resolve the matter between both countries.

Since April 2019, Iraq has offered to host the peace talks to reconcile Saudi Arabia and Iran to end the crisis in the region.

The roundtable talks between the two nations began in 2021, although with varying results due to the two’s reluctance.

However, Iran suspended the peace talks with Saudi Arabia on 14 March 2022 without giving reasons.

Iran and Saudi Arabia agreed to resume relations on 10 March 2023, after the announcement of a diplomatic deal brokered by China.

The deal followed several days of secret talks in Beijing by Iranian and Saudi officials.

Mecca is the birth city of Prophet Muhammad.

Mecca sits Islam’s holiest site, Kaaba (‘Cube’) in Al-Masjid Al-Ḥaram.

Medina is the home of Al-Masjid An-Nabawī (Arabic: ٱلْمَسْجِد ٱلنَّبَوِي, lit. ’The Prophetic Mosque’).

The mosque was built by Prophet Muhammad in Medina, in the Al-Madina Al-Munawwarah province of Saudi Arabia.

The land in which the mosque was built belonged to two young orphans, Sahl and Suhayl.

When Sahl and Suhayl learned that Prophet Muhammed wished to acquire their land to build a mosque they want to Muhammad and offered the land to Prophet Muhammad as a gift.

Prophet Muhammad insisted on paying a price for the land because they were orphaned children.

A price for the land was agreed upon.

Abu Ayyub al-Ansari funded the project and thus became the endower or donor (Arabic: وَاقِف, romanized: wāqif).

Noteworthy is also that Al-Ansari accommodated Prophet Muhammad upon his arrival at Medina in 622.

Medina is the final resting city of Prophet Muhammad.

Prophet Muhammad’s qabr (grave) is located in Medina.