Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Sunday that Tehran and Abu Dhabi have agreed to move past prior tensions and focus on the future, following a meeting with the UAE’s crown prince on the margins of the BRICS summit in New Delhi.
Pezeshkian, wrapping up his trip to India for the 18th BRICS Summit, said on social media that his conversation with Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan had gone well and that both sides wanted to leave old disputes behind. He described a positive trajectory taking shape for deeper economic ties between the two Gulf neighbors, and added that he’d also had brief exchanges with Russian and Chinese leaders on the summit sidelines.
The Iranian leader’s visit to India was also marked by a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, where the two discussed bilateral relations and the volatile security situation around the Strait of Hormuz. According to India’s foreign ministry, Modi reaffirmed New Delhi’s position that regional disputes should be settled through dialogue rather than force, and stressed the importance of protecting freedom of navigation and trade routes.
The Pezeshkian-Modi meeting was their second in recent weeks, following an earlier sit-down at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Bishkek in late August. Indian officials said Modi thanked Iran for staying engaged with BRICS activities despite the difficult regional backdrop the country has faced this year.
The overture toward the UAE comes as Iran works to rebuild diplomatic bridges across the Gulf following a turbulent stretch marked by its confrontation with Israel and the United States, offering a rare note of reconciliation amid the wider tensions still roiling the region, including the ongoing Houthi-Saudi conflict playing out along Yemen’s coast.
