Iran's foreign minister says talks with Saudi Arabia are ongoing; Yemen fighting intensifies

DUBAI, Nov 3 (Reuters) - Talks between Iran and Saudi Arabia are ongoing as Tehran aims to reach new regional security arrangements for countries in the region without foreign military involvement, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on X on Tuesday. Last week, top officials from Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan met Iranian officials in Tehran, the first high-level contact between Iran and the three nations since August. The US-Israeli war on Iran started in late February and since then, fighting has spread to Saudi Arabia and Yemen.

Riyadh said the visit was intended to open negotiating channels to "prevent the return of military escalation," as fighting between Saudi Arabia and Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis had intensified in recent weeks. Houthi attacks on the kingdom escalated as the powerful militia advanced towards the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a key shipping chokepoint that lies on the opposite side of the Arabian Peninsula from the Strait of Hormuz. The Houthis have also attacked Saudi oil facilities and airports including Riyadh's international airport, disrupting flights and oil exports and drawing Saudi airstrikes on Yemen in response.

Impoverished Yemen has been mired in a civil war since the Houthis pushed the internationally recognised, Saudi-backed government out of the capital, Sanaa, in 2014. (Reporting by Nayera Abdallah; Editing by Thomas Derpinghaus)