Iran and Saudi Arabia on Friday agreed to re-establish diplomatic relations and reopen embassies after seven years of tensions.
The major diplomatic breakthrough negotiated with China lowers the chance of armed conflict between the Mideast rivals — both directly and in proxy conflicts around the region.
The deal, struck in Beijing this week amid its ceremonial Chinese National People’s Congress, represents a major diplomatic victory for Beijing, as Gulf Arab states perceive the US slowly withdrawing from the wider Middle East. It also came as diplomats have been trying to end a long war in Yemen, a conflict in which Iran and Saudi Arabia are deeply entrenched.
Photo: EPA-EFE
The two countries released a joint communique on the deal with China, which brokered the agreement as Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) was awarded a third five-year term as leader earlier on Friday.
Xi, whose administration in the past few days has relaunched a campaign to challenge the US-led Western liberal order with warnings of “conflict and confrontation,” was credited in a trilateral statement with facilitating the talks through a “noble initiative” and having personally agreed to sponsor the negotiations that lasted from Monday through Friday.
Videos showed Iranian Supreme National Security Council Secretary Ali Shamkhani meeting with Saudi Arabian National Security Adviser Musaad bin Mohammed al-Aiban and Chinese Central Foreign Affairs Commission Director Wang Yi (王毅).
The statement calls for re-establishing ties and reopening embassies “within a maximum period of two months.” A meeting by their foreign ministers is also planned.
The UN welcomed the Saudi Arabian-Iranian rapprochement and thanked China for its role.
“Good neighborly relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia are essential for the stability of the Gulf region,” UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.
The US also welcomed “any efforts to help end the war in Yemen and de-escalate tensions in the Middle East region,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.
However, the US Department of State offered a word of caution about an agreement in which the US seems to have played no part.
“Of course, it remains to be seen whether the Iranian regime will honor their side of the deal,” it said.
China, which last month hosted Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, is a top purchaser of Saudi Arabian oil. Xi visited Riyadh in December last year for meetings with oil-rich Gulf Arab nations crucial to China’s energy supplies.
However, it does not provide the same military protections for Gulf Arab states as the US, making Beijing’s involvement that much more notable.
It was unclear what this development meant for Washington. Although long viewed as guaranteeing Mideast energy security, regional leaders have grown increasingly wary of US intentions after its chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.
The White House bristled at the notion that the agreement in Beijing suggests a rise of Chinese influence in the Mideast.
“I would stridently push back on this idea that we’re stepping back in the Middle East — far from it,” US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said.
Mark Dubowitz, CEO of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, said that renewed Iran-Saudi Arabia ties via Chinese mediation “is a lose, lose, lose for American interests.”
“Beijing adores a vacuum,” he added.
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