Riyadh, Saudi Arabia – Saudi Arabia and Iran have reached an agreement that paves the way for the restoration of diplomatic relations After seven years of rift, a major realignment between regional rivals has been facilitated by China, the countries said in a joint statement on Friday.
Saudi and Iranian officials announced the deal after talks this week in China, which has close ties to both countries, according to the statement published by the official Saudi news agency.
Iranian state media also announced the deal.
The two countries have agreed to reactivate a cooperation agreement on security that had become outdated – a change that comes after years of rocket and drone strikes by Iranian proxies on Saudi Arabia – as well as old trade, investment and cultural deals.
Saudi Arabia and Iran embassies will reopen to their respective countries within two months, and both states confirmed “their respect for the sovereignty of nations and non-interference in their internal affairs,” according to the statement.
China’s role in hosting talks that marked a turning point in a longstanding regional rivalry highlights the country’s growing economic and political importance in the Middle East, a region long marked by US military and diplomatic involvement.
Saudi and Iranian officials had held several rounds of talks over the past two years, including in Iraq and Oman, without making significant progress.
China’s top leader Xi Jinpinghe visited Riyadh in December, a state visit that was welcomed by Saudi officials, who often complain that their American allies are withdrawing from the region.
“This is a reflection of China’s growing strategic weight in the region: the fact that it has a lot of influence over the Iranians, the fact that it has very deep and important economic relations with the Saudis,” said Mohammed Alyahya, a Saudi researcher at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs from Harvard.
“There’s a strategic vacuum in the region, and the Chinese seem to have figured out how to take advantage of that.”
Chinese foreign policy chief Wang Yi said in a statement on China’s foreign ministry website that Beijing played a decisive role in the deal.
“This is a victory for dialogue, a victory for peace, and it is great positive news for the world, which is currently so turbulent and restless, and it sends a clear signal,” he said.
“The world is not only the Ukrainian issue, and there are many issues affecting the peace and well-being of the people that require the attention of the international community and need to be properly addressed by stakeholders in a timely manner.”
After years of tension, Saudi Arabia cut its ties with Iran entirely in 2016 when protesters stormed the kingdom’s embassy in Tehran following Saudi Arabia’s execution of a prominent Saudi Shiite cleric.
The rivalry between the two Islamic nations, which are less than 150 miles apart across the Persian Gulf, has long shaped Middle Eastern politics and trade.
It has a sectarian dimension – most of Saudi Arabia’s population is Sunni, while Iran’s is predominantly Shia – but it has developed mainly through indirect conflicts in neighboring Yemen, Iraq and Lebanonwhere Iran has supported the militias that Saudi authorities say have destabilized the region.
Tensions came to a head in 2019, when a missile and drone attack on a major Saudi oil facility briefly shut down half of the kingdom’s crude output; US officials said Iran had he directly oversaw the attack.
The two countries have also clashed in Yemen, where a Saudi-led coalition is fighting the rebels. Houthiwhich Iran supported.
Saudi officials have also repeatedly expressed fears about Iran’s nuclear program, saying it would be the Islamic Republic’s main target.
But they have engaged in a series of talks with Iranian delegations in recent years, with both sides hoping to ease tensions.
China also wants stability in the region, like more than 40% of its energy comes from the Gulfsaid Jonathan Fulton, non-resident senior fellow for Middle East programs at the Atlantic Council.
“Beijing has taken an intelligent approach by using its strategic partnership diplomacy, creating diplomatic capital on both sides of the Gulf,” he said.
“Unlike the United States, which does balance between one side and the other and, therefore, sees its diplomatic capacity limited.
Ali Shamkhani, head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, told Iran’s NourNews news agency that President Ebrahim Raisi’s visit to China in February helped create an opportunity to move the negotiations forward.
Shamkhani described the talks as “unambiguous, transparent, comprehensive and constructive”.
He said he hoped Iran-Saudi relations would promote “regional security and stability”.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry declined to comment immediately.
But the news complicates Israel’s speculation that a shared fear of a nuclear Iran would help Israel forge a formal relationship with Saudi Arabia.
Benjamin Netanyahuthe Israeli prime minister has repeatedly stated in recent months that he hopes to seal diplomatic ties between Israel and Saudi Arabia for the first time.
The deal comes as China has sought to play a more active role in global governance by issuing a political settlement plan for the war in Ukraine and updating what it calls the Global Security Initiative, an attempt to displace the dominant role of Washington in dealing with world conflicts and crises.
Mark Dubowitz, executive director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a Washington-based think tank, described the renewed ties between Iran and Saudi Arabia resulting from Chinese mediation as “a lose, lose, lose for American interests”.
He added: “It demonstrates that the Saudis don’t trust Washington to cover their backs, that Iran sees an opportunity to break away from US allies to end its international isolation, and that China is becoming the great ruler of the world.” superpower politics”. middle East“.
However, Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institutea Washington think tank that advocates U.S. restraint abroad called the deal “good news for the Middle East, as tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran have been a factor in instability in the region.”
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Source: Clarin
Mary Ortiz is a seasoned journalist with a passion for world events. As a writer for News Rebeat, she brings a fresh perspective to the latest global happenings and provides in-depth coverage that offers a deeper understanding of the world around us.