Iran lifts visa rules for 33 countries, including Gulf states (ISNA).

According to the Iranian Students News Agency, Iran announced Thursday that it will remove visa restrictions for 33 countries. These nations include Gulf states such as Saudi Arabia, with whom Tehran had strained ties for many years before a recent thaw.

“The ministry of tourism believes that an open-door policy will showcase Iran’s determination to engage with different countries of the world,” the semi-official Iranian news agency stated.

According to the statement, the decision would mean that the number of nations or territories whose people are permitted to visit Iran without the need to get a visa will climb to 45.

After years of animosity between the two oil-producing Gulf rivals, this decision is another step toward healing ties between Iran and Saudi Arabia (after years of tension between the two Gulf rivals).

Over the last ten years, Riyadh and Tehran have sided with opposing factions in the battles that have taken place in Syria, Iraq, and Yemen. Recent years have seen several attacks against Saudi oil infrastructure, which Western authorities have blamed on Iran and its Arab proxy forces. These attacks have posed the danger of further escalating the regional conflict in the Middle East. In response, Iran denied any role in such assaults.

Under an agreement China negotiated in March, Iran and Saudi Arabia agreed to resume full diplomatic relations, which had been cut in 2016.

Bahrain, with which Tehran has not yet re-established full ties, is also included in the decision to waive visa restrictions. Saudi Arabian nationals, United Arab Emirates nationals, and Qatari nationals are all included in the decision.

Among the countries included on the comprehensive list that ISNA provided were Lebanon, Tunisia, India, and several Central Asian, African, and “Muslim” states. Croatia, a relatively tiny member of the European Union and NATO was the only Western-allied European republic included on the list.

This visa exemption will only benefit Russian citizens traveling to the nation in groups, according to ISNA’s further statement.

Before his declaration, citizens of the Sultanate of Oman were permitted to go to Iran without a visa.

Iranian media announced on Wednesday that Iranian pilgrims will restart regular travel to Saudi Arabia on December 19, marking the first time they will commence such travel in eight years.