2 min Iran & Eastern States Iran’s Raisi officially invites Emirati president MBZ to Tehran The United Arab Emirates – which has business and trade ties with Iran stretching back more than a

The United Arab Emirates – which has business and trade ties with Iran stretching back more than a century – started re-engaging with Tehran in 2019

Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi officially invited Emirati President Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan (MBZ) to visit Tehran in the near future, the semi-official Tasnim agency reported Thursday.

The United Arab Emirates – which has business and trade ties with Iran stretching back more than a century – started re-engaging with Tehran in 2019 after attacks in Gulf waters and on Saudi energy sites. 

In April, Iran appointed an ambassador to the UAE for the first time since 2016 amid a realignment of relations between Gulf states and the Islamic Republic. The year prior, in August, Abu Dhabi said that an Emirati ambassador would also soon return to Tehran.

The UAE and other Persian Gulf countries cut ties with the Islamic Republic in 2016 after Iranian protesters attacked Saudi Arabia's diplomatic mission in Iran to protest Riyadh's execution of a prominent Shiite Muslim cleric. 

But with Middle East political alignments shifting, Emirati talk of strengthening ties with Iran has come alongside a recent rapprochement between regional rivals Riyadh and Tehran. In light of the reconciliation, Iranian officials have expressed hopes for restoring ties with other Arab states as well. 

More recently, Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian visited Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, and finally the UAE during a three-day Gulf tour in June. 

In the UAE, he discussed with MBZ "bilateral relations and ways to enhance cooperation" and extended an invitation from Raisi for the Emirati president to visit Tehran.