BAGHDAD/Obelisk: The sudden agreement between Iran and Saudi Arabia to restore diplomatic relations has much to interest the United States, as it may open the way to a nuclear agreement and provide an opportunity to strengthen the cease-fire in Yemen.
It also has an aspect that officials in Washington are sure to be deeply uncomfortable with: China’s role as peace broker in a region where the United States has long enjoyed influence.
The deal was announced after four days of undisclosed talks in Beijing between the two Middle East rivals. White House spokesman John Kirby said on Friday that Saudi Arabia had kept US officials informed of the talks with Iran even though Washington was not directly involved.
Relations between the United States and China have become deeply acrimonious on issues ranging from trade to espionage, and the two powers are increasingly competing for influence in regions far beyond their borders.
Kirby apparently wanted to downplay China’s role in Friday’s development, saying that the White House believes that internal and external pressure is what ultimately brought Tehran to the negotiating table.
But Jeffrey Feltman, a former senior official in the United States and the United Nations, said that China’s role is the most important aspect of the agreement, not the reopening of embassies after six years of estrangement.
Feltman, a researcher at the Brookings Institution, added: This will be interpreted, and perhaps this is correct, as a slap to the Biden administration and as evidence that China is the rising power.
The deal comes at a time when Iran is accelerating its nuclear program after two years of failed US attempts to revive the 2015 deal.
Daniel Russell, the top US diplomat for East Asian affairs under former President Barack Obama, said China’s mediation of the deal could have “important ramifications” for Washington.
He added that it was unusual for China to act alone to broker a diplomatic agreement regarding a dispute to which it is not a party.
And the question continued: Is this how things will be in the future? Could this be a prelude to Chinese mediation efforts between Russia and Ukraine when (Chinese President) Xi visits Moscow?
Political analyst Najm Al-Qassab believes that China’s mediation between Saudi Arabia and Iran is an embarrassment to the Biden administration.
And the Iraqi researcher residing in London, Adnan Abu Zaid, believes that the Chinese mediation brought Beijing into the areas of American influence, and it also revealed a Saudi desire to look the other way, away from the West, for a certain distance, to diversify its sources of power and alliances, so it reconciled with Iran, through China, Riyadh is also working to end the Russian-Ukrainian war, and all of this will direct the Saudi ship to new ports, but the West will remain its main ally, but not at the same level as before.
Journalist Haifa Ali Muhammad said that it was Saudi Arabia that requested Chinese mediation with Iran, and before that it requested that from Oman and Iraq, adding: If Iran had sought this, America would have refused and Riyadh would have responded.
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