Iran on Wednesday named Ali-Asqar Khaji, an advisor to the country's foreign minister, as Tehran's new ambassador to Riyadh, the official IRNA news agency reported.
Khaji, who is also the head of the foreign ministry's Persian Gulf department, replaces Mohammad Nuri-Shahroudi.
Ties between Iran and Saudi Arabia have improved since the May 1997 election of President Mohammad Khatami, after a long period of hostility following the 1979 Islamic revolution.
Last year Khatami made a historic visit to Riyadh in line with his policy of detente between Persian Gulf states, and in January Saudi King Fahd invited Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei for a visit to the kingdom.
It was the first such invitation to the Iranian supreme guide since the revolution – TEHRAN (AFP)
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