A “technical delegation” from Saudi Arabia arrived in Tehran Saturday as part of a China-brokered deal, the latest symbol of Beijing’s burgeoning international influence.

The visit, signaling the imminent return of a Saudi diplomatic mission to Iran, came almost immediately after Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan and his counterpart, Iran’s Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, met in Beijing on Thursday.

The renewed relations between the two nations come seven years after the Muslim world’s two great rival powers ended their involvement with each other.

The two pledged to bring security and stability to the Persian Gulf region, one month after their top security officials first agreed in principle to restore diplomatic relations.

Saturday’s visit, during which the Saudi delegation met Iran’s chief of protocol, Mehdi Honardoust, at the foreign ministry in Tehran, was the next step in “implementing the tripartite agreement” reached on March 10, the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) said.

“The two sides emphasized the importance of following up on the implementation of the Beijing Agreement and its activation in a way that expands mutual trust and the fields of cooperation and helps create security, stability and prosperity in the region,” according to a joint Saudi-Iran statement issued Thursday.

Sunni-dominated Saudi Arabia severed diplomatic ties with Iran in 2016, after its embassy in Tehran was stormed during a dispute between the two countries over Riyadh’s execution of a Shi’ite Muslim cleric.

Three years later, Saudi Arabia blamed Iran for missile and drone hits on its oil facilities as well as attacks on tankers in the Persian Gulf. Iran denied the charges.

The Iran-aligned Houthi movement in Yemen has also carried out cross-border missile and drone assaults into Saudi Arabia, extending its attacks into the United Arab Emirates in 2022.

The new warmth between Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil exporter, and mainly Shi’ite Iran, whose hardline government’s pursuit of nuclear weapons has put it at odds with the United States and its allies, could reshape the Middle East’s web of alliances in unpredictable ways.

The US has been the key diplomatic power in the region for decades. But its relationship with Saudi Arabia has often been a strained one.

President Donald Trump made Riyadh a top international priority, choosing Saudi Arabia for his first overseas presidential visit in 2017.

But the Saudis distrusted Trump’s predecessor, President Barack Obama, and his overtures toward Iran, and were angered by President Joe Biden’s campaign pledge to make the kingdom a “pariah” for the murder of critic Jamal Khashoggi.

Biden’s pleas for an increase in Saudi oil production, thus easing gas prices for US consumers, have fallen on deaf ears.

“The US was once the indispensable nation but [Biden’s] often incompetent management of [international] affairs is undoing that,” Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.) tweeted last month.

“Biden let Communist China become the Middle East’s new power broker,” Hagerty added. “This is what American decline under Biden looks like.”

with Post wires