Rouhani says Saudi ties ‘deserve to be warmer’

NEW YORK: The relationship between Iran and Saudi Arabia deserves to be better, though differences between the two states appear to be narrowing, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Tuesday.
“Our relationship with Saudi Arabia ... deserves to be warmer,” Rouhani told a group of senior editors in New York ahead of the annual gathering of world leaders at the UN General Assembly. “Saudi Arabia’s positions are getting closer and closer to us.” He added that if the two nations’ differences are truly narrowing, “relations with Saudi Arabia will grow closer.”
Rouhani reacted cautiously to the US-led airstrikes on Islamic State militants in Syria. He neither condemned nor endorsed the military action. “The bombardment must have a certain framework that is needed to take place in a third country.”