The Islamic Republic of Iran announced on 2 March that a UAE-based company would join a consortium of international investors in one of the country’s transportation infrastructure projects in northeastern Iran.

The Sarakhs Special Economic Zone has already attracted foreign investors from Russia, Turkiye, Kazakhstan, and China to develop the country’s sulfur transportation and processing industry.

“In this regard, the Emirati company operating in the field of transporting transit goods from the Jebel Ali Industrial area in the UAE invested $12 million in the Sarakhs Special Economic Zone,” said Mohammad Reza Brahmand, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Sarakhs Special Economic Zone in Iran, during an interview with IRNA.

“The Emirati company contributed in the form of establishing a joint venture with the Sarakhs Special Economic Zone,” he added. The UAE-based company would hold 60 percent ownership of the project.

In August 2022, the UAE’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that Saif Mohammed Al Zaabi, UAE Ambassador to Tehran, would resume his duties after six years of absence.

The UAE and Saudi Arabia closed down their embassies in Tehran in 2016 after protesters attacked Saudi Arabia’s diplomatic mission in response to the execution of  Shiite Muslim cleric Nimr al-Nimr.

“[The decision came] in line with UAE efforts to strengthen relations with Iran and as part of a previous decision to increase diplomatic representation to the rank of ambassador,” the ministry said in a statement.

Meanwhile, on 19 August, a statement was released by the spokesman for the National Security and Foreign Policy Committee in Iran’s Shura Council, Abu Al-Fadl Amoei, on a potential upgrade of diplomatic relations with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

However, diplomatic relations between the UAE and Iran remain complicated.

During the end of the 77th annual meeting of the UN General Assembly in New York on 29 September, Iran warned the UAE that staking out the three Persian Gulf islands of Abu Musa, the Greater Tunb, and the Lesser Tunb, is a violation of the Islamic Republic’s territorial integrity.

These remarks came in response to Reem al-Hashemi, the Emirati minister of State for International Cooperation’s claims that the UAE has a “legitimate right” to the islands.