Rival regional powers Iran and Saudi Arabia resumed talks in the Iraqi capital after they were suspended in March, Iran's semi-official Nour News reported.
Nour News is affiliated with the country's Supreme National Security Council, however, there was no confirmation from Saudi Arabia or Iraq on the resumption of the talks.
"The latest positive meeting has raised hopes for the two countries to take steps toward the resumption of ties,” said Nour News. It did not say when the fifth round of talks was held.
Riyadh severed ties with Tehran in 2016 after Iranian protesters stormed the Saudi embassy in the Iranian capital following the execution of a Shi'ite cleric in Saudi Arabia.
Iran suspended the talks in March without giving a reason for the decision that came as a new round of negotiations was due to start. The move came after Saudi Arabia executed 81 men in its biggest mass execution in decades. Tehran condemned the executions that activists said included 41 Shi'ite Muslims.
Predominantly Sunni Muslim Saudi Arabia and Shi'ite Iran, which are locked in proxy conflicts around the region, started direct talks last year to try to contain tensions.
Saudi Arabia and Iran have backed opposing sides in regional conflicts and political disputes in Syria, Lebanon and Iraq for years, and Saudi Arabia has led an Arab coalition waging war against the Iran-aligned Houthi movement in Yemen since 2015.
MS NOW, CNN and Politico said on Monday they were suing the Trump Administration to protect their First Amendment rights after President Donald Trump's announcement that he would ban the news outlets from the White House's building grounds.
Pakistan's government said on Monday that it launched airstrikes in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region, killing at least 28 militants, with one security official saying two Afghan provinces were targeted.
Flights at several British airports were delayed on Monday due to an air traffic control failure, Britain's NATS air traffic control provider said, less than two weeks after a separate issue halted flights across the country.
A fire that broke out at a textile factory in the Chinese city of Foshan in southern Guangdong province on Sunday killed eight people and injured one, state media said on Monday.
A powerful typhoon was approaching Japan's Pacific coast on Monday, bringing torrential rain, violent winds, and a heightened risk of landslides across the Kanto region and other parts of eastern Japan, the weather agency said.
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