Commentary
The Chinese Communist Party’s Middle East peace deal has implications for U.S. regional influence.
On March 10th, Saudi Arabia and Iran announced that they would resume diplomatic relations in a deal brokered by China. Relations between the two countries have been broken since 2016 over a dispute regarding Riyadh’s execution of a Shi’ite Muslim cleric. The final straw for their relationship was when the Saudi embassy in Tehran was stormed by protesters. Afterward, both countries recalled their diplomatic missions.
Tensions worsened when Saudi Arabia blamed Iran for a 2019 drone attack on its tankers in the Gulf. Saudi Arabia also accused Tehran of engaging in proxy warfare when Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi terrorists carried out cross-border missile and drone attacks in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, hitting Aramco facilities in Jeddah….