Saudi Arabia's defense minister visited Tehran to discuss defense relations and regional cooperation. Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman Al Saud was the first member of the Saudi royal family to visit Iran since 1997. He met with Major General Mohammad Bagheri, an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) officer who is the chief of staff of Iran's armed forces. Bagheri's Saudi Arabian military counterpart visited Iran in November 2024, and Iran and Saudi Arabia held their first joint naval exercise a month earlier. The two countries signed an agreement in 2023 normalizing their diplomatic relations, which they had cut off in 2016 following the execution of a Shi'ite cleric in Saudi Arabia.