SAUDI ARABIA, IRAN AGREE TO RESTORE TIES
After years of open hostility and proxy conflicts across the Middle East, Saudi Arabia and Iran have agreed to re-establish diplomatic ties, they announced Friday, in a significant pivot for the two regional rivals that was facilitated by China.
China hosted the talks that led to the breakthrough, highlighting Beijing’s growing role as a global economic and political power, and counterbalance to Washington.
Seven years after cutting formal ties, Iran and Saudi Arabia will reopen embassies in each other’s countries within two months and confirmed their “respect for the sovereignty of states and noninterference in their internal affairs,” they said in a joint statement published by the official Saudi Press Agency. Iran’s state news media also announced the deal.
The two countries agreed to reactivate a lapsed security cooperation pact — a shift that comes after years of Iranian-backed militia in Yemen targeting Saudi Arabia with missile and drone attacks — as well as older trade, investment and cultural accords.
Whether the shift leads to a deep or lasting detente between governments that have long been in conflict remains unclear.
While Washington views Iran as an adversary, Beijing has cultivated close ties to both Iran and Saudi Arabia, and unlike U.S. officials, it does not chastize them about human rights. Iran’s president, Ebrahim Raisi, visited Beijing last month, and China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, visited Riyadh, the Saudi capital, in December.
China’s most senior foreign policy official, Wang Yi, indicated Friday in a statement on the Chinese foreign ministry website that Beijing had played an instrumental role in the resumption of diplomatic ties.
“This is a victory for the dialogue, a victory for peace, and is major positive news for the world which is currently so turbulent and restive, and it sends a clear signal,” he said.