Talks between Iran and Saudi Arabia have been temporarily suspended.

The Nour News report notes that Iran has unilaterally suspended talks with Saudi Arabia.

The information came after Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein announced on the sidelines of a diplomatic forum in Antalya that Baghdad would host the fifth round of talks between Iran and Saudi Arabia on Wednesday.

Earlier, Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud raised the possibility of holding a fifth round of talks with Iran.

Representatives from Iran and Saudi Arabia have held several rounds of talks in Baghdad in recent months.

Diplomatic relations between Tehran and Riyadh soured after the execution in January 2016 in Saudi Arabia of an open critic of the Saudi monarchy, Shiite cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr. After that, Riyadh severed ties with Tehran in response to attacks by angry protesters on its embassy in Tehran.

The Saudi military campaign in Yemen and the deaths of hundreds of Iranian pilgrims during the Hajj in a deadly stampede in the Saudi city of Mina in September 2015 set the stage for escalating tensions between Tehran and Riyadh, Tasnim notes.