Iran's FM Absent From NAM's Group Photos In Baku

However, the source of the news is Iran’s government news agency IRNA, and so far, there have been no reports from the Saudi side on the meeting.

The two countries renewed diplomatic ties in March after seven years of animosity, in a deal negotiated by China, opening the way to potential bilateral cooperation in different fields.

"Owji and bin Salman discussed bilateral issues between Iran and Saudi Arabia, including investment in the oil and gas industry and exploring the possibility of joint investments," IRNA said.

"Issues such as hydrocarbon trade and the development of common fields were also among the topics of discussion."

Tehran has been trying to imply that the resumption of relations with Riyadh will bring an economic windfall, and that the Saudis are ready to invest in Iran’s energy sector, which is controlled by the state and by dozens of companies affiliated with the Revolutionary Guard.

The Iranian regime, hard pressed by an economic crisis and popular opposition at home, often uses diplomatic developments to give hope to the population that the economy will soon improve.

Iran needs around $240 billion in investments to overhaul its energy sector suffering from decades of neglect, however, the United States has an array of sanctions in place going back to mid-1990s, that would make any foreign investment highly unlikely.

A dispute over maritime boundaries in the Western end of the Persian Gulf, where there are proven gas and oil deposits, has flared up in recent days, as both Kuwait and Saudi Arabia have underscored that the field is within their boundaries and Iran should negotiate to determine the extent of its jurisdiction in the area.

Citing the foreign ministry, Saudi state news agency SPA said on Tuesday that the kingdom enjoys “full rights” along with Kuwait to the disputed gas and oil field, a declaration that came after Tehran said it was preparing to start drilling.

It is not clear from the IRNA report if the issue was discussed in Vienna between the two oil ministers. Iranian government media this week have been silent about the maritime dispute.

Called Arash in Iran and Durra or Dorra by Saudi Arabia and Kuwait -- the offshore field was discovered in 1967 and is estimated to have a total proven reserves of around 310 million barrels of oil and 20 trillion cubic feet of gas.

Iran claims any development without its consent breaks international laws, insisting that 40 percent of the field is in its territorial waters. However, Saudi Aramco Gulf Operations Company signed a Memorandum of Understanding in December with Kuwait Gulf Oil Company (KGOC) to develop the joint gas field, leaving Iran out of the project. Outraged by the snub, Iran said it has a stake in the field and called the Saudi-Kuwaiti agreement "illegal".

Within OPEC, Iran is exempt from production cuts agreed with Russia because it has exported less than its quota since 2018, when former US President Donald Trump withdrew from the 2015 JCPOA nuclear deal and imposed sanctions on Tehran.

Lately, Iran has boosted daily exports to around 1.5 million barrels from a low of around 250,000 in 2019-2020, but that is still below its OPEC quota.

The US State Department mysteriously refused the visas for the latest round of the Volleyball Nations League in California, while a long list of officials accompanying the team in the US were granted the visas.

The visit has sparked controversy in Tehran, where the Iranian public are funding bureaucrats' travel at the expense of key athletes.

Iran's national team arrived in Anaheim, California, a few days ago without its head coach Behrouz Ataei and several key players including Amin Emsaeilnejad and Mohammad-Taher Vadi. Meanwhile, the federation's public relations officer, vice-president, secretary and treasurer had been granted entry.

Milad Taghavi, the secretary of the federation and one of those initially denied a visa, called for boycotting the tournament because of the issue but finally ended up in California, according to Iran's state-run Mehr News Agency.

The Iranian website Tabnak has criticized the Iranian volleyball federation for giving a list of 60 people to the US embassy in Ankara and sending several officials to California

The court has given five-year jail terms to Shadi Shahidzadeh, Mansour Amini, Valiollah Qadamian, and Ataollah Zafar, the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) reported on Wednesday.

Notorious judge Iman Afshari, who is under international sanctions over human rights violations, convicted the four Baha'i of "joining illegal groups with the purpose of disrupting the country's security", following a trial held on May 31.

The Court had earlier rejected a request to release the four on bail following their arrest on May 1.

Shahidzadeh is the granddaughter of Ezzat Zarghami whose dead body was kept in a morgue for 31 days after the Intelligence Ministry prevented his family from holding a funeral for him, and was finally buried secretly.

The three others - who are reportedly suffering from underlying health conditions - were also staff members of the cemetery of Tehran's Baha'i community.

Sources earlier told Radio Farda that the Intelligence Ministry had taken the four Baha'i hostage to force the minority group to bury their loved ones in the way Iran's regime wants.

Bahai’s, who number around 300,000 in Iran, are systematically persecuted, discriminated against, and harassed.

They cannot hold jobs and the public sector and have been released from their jobs in the private sector under pressure from authorities.

Conservative heavyweight Mohammad Reza Bahonar triggered the political confrontation by threatening Iran's reformists that they would be treated as “outsiders” if they boycott the upcoming elections. This is a serious threat in the Islamic Republic’s political context.

Two days later, a prominent conservative figure, Bijan Moghaddam, who is close to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and the Revolutionary Guard, tried to smooth out Bahonar’s comment, under reformists pressure, saying that this was Bahonar’s own view and did not reflect the position of the ruling hardliners. 

Bahonar had used the vernacular term "khavarej" about reformists if they boycott the elections. The word meaning outsiders, also means in the Iranian religious context "those who opposed Imam Ali," the first Imam of the Shiite sect who was eventually assassinated by khavarej (the Kharijites). The word is almost synonymous with heretics.

Bahonar had made the statement after reformist theoretician Saeed Hajjarian mentioned boycotting as one of the six possible reactions by reformist if hardliners prevent or restrict their right to run in the elections.

Hundreds of reformist candidates were banned in the 2020 parliamentary vote by the conservative Guardian Council loyal to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. The result was a very low-turnout election in which hardliners won a commanding majority in the legislature.

While they show little sign of giving reformists a fair chance in March 2024, there is talk of simply boycotting the vote. At the same time that hardliners want to continue their monopoly of power, they are concerned about another low-turnout elections that would further tarnish the image of the regime.

In his interview with Khabar Onlineon Monday, Moghaddam maintained that reformists' maneuvers indicate they are likely to boycott the election. He said in a tone milder than Bahonar's: "Calling for participation in the elections is essential for Iran's security and national interests."

Moghaddam also said, "Both the Supreme Leader and the people expect reformists to take part in the elections." Again, this was a threat milder and more diplomatic than Bahonar's.

However, speaking of the voters, many people have commented on social media that Iranians have said over and over during recent protests that they no longer trust the reformists or the conservatives, and what they want is in fact a regime change. 

Earlier, Azar Mansoori, the leader of Iran's Reform Front, an umbrella organization consisting of several reformist parties and political groups, addressed Bahonar in a July 2 telling him that if he is concerned about low turnout, instead of threatening reformists he should tell his fellow conservatives to allow fair competition. 

In another tweet on the same date, prominent Iranian sociologist Mohammad Fazeli wrote: "Such a threat…reveals a significant characteristic of Iranian politics today."

Hajjarian, a former intelligence operative, had made it clear in his statement that "as the current government does not want reformists' political participation, reformists may consider taking part in the elections only if President Raisi resigns or is ousted."

Moghaddam told Khabar Online that "statements against the elections by some politicians may be assessed as a threat against national security." He added: "When you put forward preconditions that cannot be met, you are obviously paving the way for boycotting the elections." 

Former IRGC officer Ghorban Ali Salavatian wrote in a tweet on July 3, "Some of the conservatives cannot talk properly and in a timely manner. So, they shoot themselves in the foot like Mr. Bahonar who has threatened the reformists rather than trying to encourage them to take part in the elections. Referring to Bahonar's outdated rhetoric, another user wrote that "Individuals like Bahonar continue to live in the 1980s."

Another comment said "What you quoted was what Bahonar said directly. Indirectly, however, he was begging the Reformists to form a coalition with a group of conservatives including himself." 

It does not yet appear that the Iran-backed Shiite group Kataib Hezbollah has made any negotiation demands for Elizabeth Tsurkov, who traveled to Iraq on her Russian passport to carry out research for her PhD studies in politics at Princeton University in the United States.

An expert on regional proxies across the Middle East including Turkey's proxies in Syria, she had traveled to several of the region's terror hotspots. Israel's Prime Minister's Office released a statement which confirmed Tsurkov is still alive, adding that the situation is being handled by the relevant bodies in Israel.

Tsurkov's mother Irena said they lost contact two months ago. "From what I had known until today, she was in Turkey, working on her research for Princeton. I didn't even know she was in Iraq," she told Israel's N12 News.

Tsurkov's Twitter page, which has nearly 80,000 followers, was last updated on March 21.

Israeli citizens are forbidden from travelling to Iraq — an enemy state where Kataib Hezbollah is one of the most powerful Iran-backed militia groups, with a history of attacking US targets in the area.