DUBAI: Iran’s foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian met the Sudanese foreign minister for the first time since diplomatic relations between the two countries were severed seven years ago, the official IRNA news agency reported on Thursday.

“On the sidelines of the Non-Aligned Movement meeting, our delegation met with the Sudanese foreign minister and discussed how to imminently resume diplomatic ties between Khartoum and Tehran,” Amirabdollahian tweeted.

“In this meeting, talks were directed at resolving misunderstandings between the two countries and strengthening the political and economic relations between Tehran and Khartoum,” IRNA said of the meeting in Azerbaijan’s capital Baku.

Iran top diplomat in Oman on second leg of Gulf tour

Sudan cut diplomatic ties with Iran in 2016 following the storming of the Saudi Arabian Embassy in Tehran.

Saudi Arabia and Iran agreed to resume ties in March under a deal negotiated by China, raising expectations that Tehran and other Arab countries would fully re-establish diplomatic relations.

The meeting between Amirabdollahian and Sudan’s Ali al-Sadiq Ali took place on the sidelines of a ministerial meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement in Baku.