Al-Jazeera Net correspondents
Washington- The picture of the Secretary of the Iranian Supreme National Security Council, Ali Shamkhani, and the Saudi National Security Adviser, Musaed bin Muhammad Al-Aiban, and between them and Wang Yi, the most senior Chinese diplomat, which was published with the announcement of an agreement to restore Saudi-Iranian diplomatic relations, caused a great shock to the corridors of American politics.
The agreement between Iran and Saudi Arabia to restore diplomatic relations, in a deal brokered by China, sends – according to observers – many messages that the American role in the Middle East is waning, and that China has a role in issues that were very far from its sphere of influence, as well as A great shock to the geopolitical alignment of the Middle East.
At a time when the administration of US President Joe Biden was busy trying to expand the depth and scope of the Abraham Accords (for normalization) by helping to establish a new security structure in the Middle East in the face of what it sees as threats posed by Iranian drones and missiles, China moved quietly to bring the two most important countries closer. Gulf countries, Saudi Arabia and Iran.
Washington did not pay close attention to the significance of the growing Chinese role in the region, which was crystallized by an important visit by Iranian President Ibrahim Raisi to Beijing last month, following the visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping to Saudi Arabia last December, in addition to the fact that Beijing has become in recent years the first trading partner. Riyadh had transactions worth more than $87 billion last year, and China became Iran’s first trading partner with transactions worth more than $17 billion.
An old American vision
The outbreak of the Iranian revolution in 1979 was a shock to Washington and its security arrangements in the region following the loss of Shah Muhammad Reza Pahlavi, a staunch ally of the United States. American Vital Interests” is a serious and direct message to those who think of approaching militarily from the Gulf.
Despite the passage of more than 40 years, the goal of building a Gulf collective security system supervised by Washington is one of the most important US priorities in the region, especially with the Gulf continuing to play a pivotal role in the global energy system.
During a speech to the Manama Forum last November, the chief Middle East official at the US National Security Council, Brett McGurk, announced that his country is working to build an integrated infrastructure for air and sea defense in the Middle East, at a time when tensions are escalating with Iran, which is accused of destabilizing by launching Attacks on ships in Gulf waters.
At the same forum, the commander of the US Central Command, General Michael Korella, announced that a Washington-led task force will deploy more than 100 ships marching in the strategic waters of the Gulf region by next year to fend off Iranian maritime threats.
Karim Sadjadpour, a senior researcher at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, believes that “Iran’s attack in 2019 on Aramco facilities showed Riyadh that the United States cannot protect it from Iran, and given China’s enormous influence on Iran and its interest in regional stability, Saudi Arabia probably hopes that this agreement will provide it with a shield.” China brings stability to the region.
On the other hand, Richard Goldberg, Senior Adviser to the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, considered that the Saudi move came as “a direct result of American policy, as Riyadh is hedging once morest lifting sanctions and returning to the nuclear agreement, and once morest the United States’ withdrawal from the region by entering into a new structure for the Middle East with Chinese mediation.”
important player
For his part, Mark Dubowitz, director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, considered that “the restoration of Iranian-Saudi relations as a result of Chinese mediation is a very big loss for American interests,” stressing that it indicates that “the Saudis do not trust Washington to support them, and that Iran sees it as an opportunity to end its international isolation.” It establishes China as a major power in the Middle East.”
As for retired US diplomat Chas Freeman, he says, “If you create a diplomatic vacuum, someone will fill it. This is basically what happened to US policy in the Gulf.” For many years, China reduced its relationship with the Middle East to commercial affairs, but now it seems comfortable to engage in political affairs, and the new deal indicates that both Saudi Arabia and Iran want to appease China, not necessarily because it is the new superpower in the region, but rather because it is an important player that cannot be ignored. ignore him.
In a series of tweets on the Twitter platform, Anil Schlin, an expert on US policy in the Gulf at the Quincy Institute in Washington, confirmed that “China’s mediation in the deal is important, as it shows the role it can play in strengthening a Middle East that is defined more by cooperation and trade, and less by During the conflict and arms sales, as was usual under the dominance of the United States.”
The expert advised Washington of the need to work to promote peace and prosperity for the peoples of the region, not just arms sales and security assistance.
Chinese presence
The agreement comes as the Gulf states see the United States slowly withdrawing from the Middle East, leaving a power vacuum for China to fill. During his trip to the Middle East that led him to Israel, Palestine and Saudi Arabia last July, US President Joe Biden announced that his country “will not move away and leave a vacuum for China, Russia or Iran to fill.” And Biden missed – according to observers – the fact that the Middle East has become an open field. He strongly welcomes the increasing role of China in most of his countries.
China’s presence in the Middle East has grown significantly in recent years in all areas of economy, defense, diplomacy and aspects of soft power. Beijing now believes that its interests in the Middle East are best served by focusing on trade and distancing itself from security and political affairs. However, the countries of this region are increasingly dragging China into political and security issues, which prompted China to play a more prominent security role, as was evident in the mediation between Tehran and Riyadh.
