Saudi and Iranian officials held direct talks this month in a bid to ease tensions between the two foes, a senior Iranian official and two regional sources said.
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The April 9 meeting in Iraq, which focused on Yemen, where a military coalition led by Saudi Arabia has been battling the Iran-aligned Houthi group since March 2015, did not lead to any breakthrough.
"This was a low-level meeting to explore whether there might be a way to ease ongoing tensions in the region," the Iranian official said, adding that it was based on Iraq's request.
Another source said that the talks also touched on Lebanon, which is facing a political vacuum amid a dire financial crisis. Gulf Arab states are alarmed by the expanding role of Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah movement.
Sunni Gulf power Saudi Arabia cut ties with Shiite Iran in January 2016 following the storming of its embassy in Tehran in a row over Riyadh's execution of a Shi'ite Muslim cleric.
A Western diplomat in the region said the United States and Britain were informed in advance of the Saudi-Iran talks but had "not seen the outcome."
