Saudi Arabia’s Defence Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman has met several Iranian officials before a second round of talks between Washington and Tehran over Iran’s nuclear programme.

The visit comes amid growing fears of a potential conflict in the region if diplomatic efforts fail to resolve soaring tensions between the United States and Iran, with President Donald Trump repeatedly threatening to bomb Iran if it does not reach an agreement with the US over its nuclear-related activities.

Prince Khalid said he conveyed a message from Saudi Arabia’s King Salman to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during Thursday’s meeting in Tehran.

“We discussed our bilateral relations and topics of mutual interest,” he wrote on X.

“Our belief is that the relationship between the Islamic Republic of Iran and Saudi Arabia is beneficial for both countries,” Iranian state media cited Khamenei as saying in the meeting on Thursday.

Prince Khalid also met President Masoud Pezeshkian and Iran’s armed forces chief of staff, Mohammad Bagheri.

“Ties between the Saudi and Iranian armed forces have been improving since the Beijing agreement,” Bagheri said after the meeting, according to Iranian state media.

Saudi Arabia has welcomed Iran’s nuclear talks with the US, saying it supported efforts to resolve regional and international disputes.

Hamidreza Gholamzadeh, a political analyst, said the purpose of the Saudi defence minister’s was likely to express concern about a potential attack on Iran.

“Saudis want to share their concern and reassure Iran that they would not like … attacks against Iran and they want better relations with Iran,” he told Al Jazeera.

Iran and Saudi Arabia agreed in a 2023 deal brokered by China to re-establish relations after years of hostility that had threatened stability and security in the Gulf region and helped fuel conflicts in the Middle East from Yemen to Syria.

‘Crucial stage’

The Saudi defence minister’s trip coincided with a visit to Iran by the UN nuclear watchdog chief, Rafael Grossi, who warned that the US and Iran were running out of time to reach a deal.

Iranian and US delegations are set to gather in Rome on Saturday for a second round of Omani-mediated negotiations, a week after the longtime foes held their highest-level talks since US President Donald Trump abandoned a landmark nuclear accord during his first term in 2018.

Since re-entering the White House in January, Trump has revived his so-called “maximum pressure” policy, imposing punishing economic sanctions against Iran and threatening military action if Tehran does not agree to a deal.

“We are in a very crucial stage of these important negotiations. We know we don’t have much time, this is why I am here … to facilitate this process,” Grossi said on Thursday.

“We are working hard and we want to succeed,” he told a joint news conference with Iran’s atomic energy agency chief Mohammad Eslami, acknowledging that the effort to secure a deal was “not an easy process”.

Asked about US President Donald Trump’s threats to attack Iran, Grossi urged people to “concentrate on our objective.”

“Once we get to our objective, all of these things will evaporate because there will be no reason for concern,” he said.

In March, Trump sent a letter to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei urging talks and warning of possible military action if Iran refused.

Khamenei has cautioned that while the talks with the United States had started well, they could yet prove fruitless.

“The negotiations may or may not yield results,” he said on Tuesday.

Western governments have long accused Iran of seeking to acquire nuclear weapons capability, an ambition Tehran has consistently denied.

Since the nuclear deal’s collapse in 2018, Iran has abandoned all limits on its programme, and enriches uranium to up to 60 percent purity, near weapons-grade levels of 90 percent.

Surveillance cameras installed by the IAEA have been disrupted, while Iran has barred some of the Vienna-based agency’s most experienced inspectors.

But despite the tensions between Iran and the agency, its access has not been entirely revoked.

Ahmed al-Sharaa, Syria’s new leader, would like better relations with Moscow, Qatar said.

Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani has told Russian President Vladimir Putin that Syria’s new leader is keen to build ties with Moscow.

At talks in the Russian capital on Thursday, Al Thani assured the Russian leader that interim president Ahmed al-Sharaa was seeking to build relations with Russia, after the removal of former President Bashar al-Assad, who was a close ally of Moscow.

“As for Syria, a few days ago President al-Sharaa was in Qatar, and we spoke with him about the historical and strategic relationship between Syria and Russia,” Al Thani told Putin.

The talks come as Putin attempts to retain Russia’s use of two military bases in Syria to maintain its influence in the region after al-Assad fled the country in December as opposition fighters led by Ahmed al-Sharaa closed in on the capital.

Putin said Syria’s situation, rocked by sectarian violence in recent weeks, was of serious importance.

“We would like to do everything to ensure that Syria, firstly, remains a sovereign, independent and territorially integral state, and we would like to discuss with you the possibility of providing assistance to the Syrian people, including humanitarian assistance,” the Kremlin leader told the emir.

The two men also discussed the situation in Gaza, where Qatar played a key role in brokering a January ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas for a three-phase ceasefire.

Israel restarted its offensive in the besieged enclave in March, and talks to try to restore the ceasefire have so far failed to achieve a breakthrough.

“We reached an agreement regarding Gaza a few months back, but Israel has not adhered to the agreement,” Al Thani said.

“Qatar, in its role as a mediator, will strive to bridge differing perspectives in an effort to reach an agreement to end the suffering of the Palestinian people.”

Putin told the emir, “We know that Qatar is making very serious efforts to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Unfortunately, the initiatives put forward, including by you, have not been implemented. Peaceful people continue to die in Palestine, which is an absolute tragedy of today.”

Interfax quoted Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov as saying there was no substantive discussion of the war in Ukraine, but Putin expressed thanks for Qatar’s involvement in arranging the return of children from both countries who were separated from their parents during the war.

The 2025 World Press Photo of the Year has been awarded to Samar Abu Elouf, a Doha-based Palestinian photographer, for her poignant image of Mahmoud Ajjour, a young boy severely injured while fleeing an Israeli attack in Gaza.

Captured for The New York Times newspaper, the photograph powerfully conveys Mahmoud’s suffering and resilience after an explosion in March last year left one of his arms severed and the other mutilated.

Since her evacuation from Gaza in December 2023, Abu Elouf has been documenting the experiences of individuals like Mahmoud, who sought medical treatment abroad.

Joumana El Zein Khoury, executive director of World Press Photo, an Amsterdam-based organisation, described the image as “quiet” yet deeply impactful, capturing the intimate suffering of one child while also speaking to the wider repercussions of global conflict.

The winner and two finalists were announced on Thursday, during the press opening of the World Press Photo Exhibition in Amsterdam. The exhibition will travel to more than 60 locations worldwide, showcasing some of the year’s most compelling and visually striking stories.

For 70 years, the World Press Photo Contest has honoured the best in photojournalism. This year’s contest received at least 59,000 submissions from photographers in 141 countries, featuring powerful stories of struggle, defiance, warmth and courage.

Here are some of the top images of this year: