The sudden announcement came to represent a turning point that shuffles the cards and could allow calm in the region and a better organization of the differences between Tehran and Riyadh. Despite a toxic regional and international climate, and after negotiations that started in Baghdad in 2021 and continued in Iraq and the Sultanate of Oman for two years, there was a practical obstacle about starting an understanding to resume the relations severed since 2016, or discussing all the regional contentious files from Yemen to the Arab East, but Chinese diplomacy It seized the political moment through its mediating policies and succeeded in making an unexpected breakthrough due to the size of its interests on both sides, especially with regard to energy resources, as Saudi Arabia is one of the largest exporters to China, and because the two countries and this region have basic sites on the paths of the new Silk Roads, which are titles of expansion China globally and applied works for its soft power.
It also highlights Saudi Arabia’s keenness on the importance of calming down, ending the Yemen war, giving priority to stability and development, and developing a more flexible foreign policy. Iran seems keen not to waste its gains in a difficult situation internally with the deterioration of its relations with the West and the decline of its economy, and it finds itself facing the possibility of a military confrontation. For all these reasons, there was an intersection of interests that led to this event.
It is unlikely that declarations of stopping interference in internal affairs, respect for the sovereignty of states, good neighborliness, and the return of diplomatic exchange will lead to a solution to complex and accumulated files. But it could constitute the beginning of a long journey and an entry point to test promises, as stated in the White House’s commentary, because reneging on them will turn back the clock.
The whole point of the Peking Agreement remains in its reflection on the regional balances and the possibility of an intensification of the international conflict, with China scoring a point at the expense of the dominant American role for nearly seven decades.
Thus, the West Asian region can become a new theater of tension, with China seeking to play a more present and effective role. China comes to compete with Washington in a historical theater of influence, while showing signs of Washington’s failure to build a regional wall to block Iranian expansion, as well as to contain the Iranian nuclear program.
Israel will find itself in a position that will impose difficult choices on it, and Washington and European countries will be forced to recalculate in the face of the progress of the East axis towards the East.
