After four days of talks in Beijing, both Tehran and Riyadh agreed to reestablish relations and open up embassies in their respective countries following seven years of hostilities.
The news is bringing hopes that both nations will whittle down support for opposing factions in the deadly Yemen civil war.
The announcement was a major diplomatic and political win for China, whose top diplomat, Wang Yi, hailed it as a “victory” and said Beijing would continue to address global issues.
Jonathan Fulton, a nonresident senior fellow for Middle East Programs at the Atlantic Council, said the deal “may lead to something positive” or “it may fizzle.”
“It’s too early to proclaim it anything other than a good first step,” Fulton wrote in an analysis. “It is, however, significant as China’s first major foray into regional diplomacy. Beijing has been signaling since at least last January that it is willing to promote a non-US centered vision of the Middle East, and this is a sign of things to come.”
The U.S. role in the Middle East remains under question as some nations in the region see Washington slowly pulling out after the 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan and downsizing in Syria.
Also, tensions with Iran have soared and relations with Saudi Arabia are frosty after the killing of U.S.-based journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018.
But the White House dismissed those concerns as National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters the U.S. is not stepping back from its role in the region.
Meanwhile, President Biden welcomed the easing of tensions in the Middle East.
“The better the relations between Israel and their Arab neighbors, the better for everybody,” Biden said during remarks on the U.S. economy on Friday.
Alex Vatanka, the director of the Iran Program at the Middle East Institute, pumped the brakes on China’s victory lap, telling The Hill the agreement might not be a “major loss” for Washington in the long term.
“It symbolically makes the United States look like it’s not able to be a key player,” he said. “But it’s not going to be a Chinese-dominated Middle East.”
Check out more coverage at The Hill’s international page.
