Just at the end of his daily briefing, the UN spokesman Stephan Zurik was asked what he thought of the agreement to renew relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran. The spokesman did not have much to say. “We hope that this agreement will have a positive effect on the region.” The spokesman’s brief response The veteran and experienced, expressed the special lack of interest that characterized the reactions among ambassadors and senior diplomats at the UN headquarters in New York to the renewal of relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran.
The responses came as answers to reporters’ questions that were imposed on heads of delegations and diplomats. These treated the news about the agreement between Saudi Arabia and Iran as a marginal event, which should not be ignored. But not a political development of particular practical significance. Far from it.
It was surprising to hear the stated restraint of ambassadors and diplomats in New York identified as Middle East experts and their almost indifference to the agreement between Saudi Arabia and Iran compared to the positive reactions and enthusiastic evaluations that local commentators gave to the agreement. The UN likes agreements between countries, even those reached outside the framework of the UN and without its intervention.
But the countries that the current agreement in question is between are not the most popular in the UN arena, and that is a wild understatement. Iran is an outcast country, a leper in the World Organization complex in New York whose name is mentioned in a random conversation, between diplomats or journalists, raises a chain of disgust. The attitude towards Saudi Arabia is outwardly respectable .
Saudi Arabia is not an important and central country in the United Nations and its presence in discussions, consultations and briefings dealing with crises and global problems is not felt. Even among the groups of Arab or Muslim countries, Saudi Arabia is not considered an influential and leading factor. Nor does Saudi Arabia itself show special importance to the world organization.
Years ago, when it was Saudi Arabia’s turn to receive two-year membership in the Security Council, Riyadh announced that it was giving up membership. The fact that the agreement on the renewal of relations is between two countries, one of which has the status of an outcast and an assignee and the other, at best, a normal society-state, turned the agreement between them in the UN arena into a marginal event, not something special.
“They say that it is necessary to wait and see if the agreement will be good and positive for the region. There is no need to wait to determine that the agreement will not significantly improve Iran’s image as an outcast country whose fanatical police are dangerous to world peace, nor will it give Saudi Arabia a strengthened and influential status in the United Nations,” the deputy head of the delegation told me in a conversation western
Ambassadors and diplomats who follow developments in the Middle East and are familiar with what is happening in the region, also do not like Mohammed bin Salman and do not tolerate his conduct. In particular, they disapprove of his attitude towards the US and the Western powers. In the talks, the Saudi official is defined as ‘unstable’ and ‘untrustworthy’.
The ambassadors of the Western powers and senior Western diplomats in private conversations attack Mohammed bin Salman as someone who is trying to undermine the position of the United States as a superpower. “China cannot and will not be able to give Saudi Arabia what the United States can,” said the deputy head of a Western delegation in the conversation. “Even if you appear to be the winner in the conflict with the US, in the end you come out the loser.”
Israel is not particularly mentioned in the reactions at the UN Center. There is and is a palpable appreciation of Israel for its efforts to expose and present Iran’s nuclearization as a threat and danger to the world. According to diplomats, the assessments that were voiced and published regarding the prospects for relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel were exaggerated and expressed more wishful thinking of their distributors than truth.
“There is no chance of any kind of settlement between Israel and Saudi Arabia, not only for the foreseeable future, but also for the foreseeable future,” said the deputy head of the Western delegation in the conversation. According to him, the agreement between Iran and Saudi Arabia should not influence Israel to stop or even weaken its propaganda struggle against Iran’s nuclearization.