When former Iranian President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani died Jan. 8, much was made of the absence of a message of condolence from Saudi Arabia. This was especially stark since Rafsanjani personally enjoyed good relations with many Arab leaders and had played a key role in the Saudi-Iranian rapprochement in the years after the end of the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq War. Indeed, rulers in Arab states such as Bahrain, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Oman all sent messages of condolence upon the death of a man described as a “pillar” of Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.

On Jan. 24, Entekhab News reported that Saudi Arabia’s King Salman bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud had indeed expressed his sympathy over the demise of Rafsanjani — in a letter addressed only to his family. In the message, which was reportedly relayed to the Iranian mission at the Organization of Islamic Cooperation on Jan. 12, Salman described Rafsanjani as “honorable” and wished for God to grant “patience” to the family of the late ayatollah.

News of the so-far unreported message of condolence surfaced as Kuwait’s Foreign Minister Sabah Al-Khalid Al-Sabah paid a visit to Iran for the first time in two years. According to a Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) report on Jan. 12, the foreign minister is apparently tasked with passing on a message from the Gulf Cooperation Council to Iranian officials.

Indeed, the semi-official ISNA news agency on Jan. 24 quoted an Iranian Foreign Ministry representative as having said that the Kuwaiti foreign minister was carrying a message from the emir of Kuwait for Iranian President Hassan Rouhani.