Broader signs of a changing global order

Iran and Saudi Arabia have agreed to re-establish diplomatic relations in a China-brokered deal that could have wide-ranging consequences but building on it, analysts say, will prove the main challenge.

The agreement signed in Beijing on Friday said the two countries’ foreign ministers will meet to discuss diplomatic missions within two months, marking the end of a seven-year rift.

In Iran, the deal was generally welcomed, with senior officials praising it as a step towards reducing tensions and bolstering regional security. Conservative media outlets mainly focused on how the deal signalled a “defeat” for the United States and Israel.

The breakthrough also comes as various US media outlets reported this week that Israel and Iran were edging closer to war.

The rapprochement on Friday was greeted with optimism by the Middle East countries, while it was cautiously welcomed by the US.

The agreement is a positive development but is only one step of many, according to Tehran-based political analyst Diako Hosseini.

But China’s efforts in brokering the deal have been seen by analysts as broader signs of a “changing global order”.

According to Hosseini, China was the big victor of the agreement, as it bolstered the legitimacy of its reach across the region.

“Effectively, not only China became the guarantor of this agreement, it also showed that the US can no longer ignore China’s role in the security arrangements of the Persian Gulf, a region where the energy reserves and passageways are more important to the Chinese economy than the US,” he said.

Sina Toossi, non-resident senior fellow at the Center for International Policy in Washington, DC, said: “I think this is a broader sign of the changing global order and how the period of America being the unchallenged global superpower – especially after the Cold War – that period is ending,” Toossi said.

“[For] countries like Saudi Arabia in the past decades, America was the only viable partner. Now, these countries have other options. China can give them a lot of support – economic, political, military relations – and Russia can do that, too.

“It is in their interest that they’re living side by side with Iran and Iran is not going anywhere. If the US is not going to give them unconditional support – for what I think [Saudi Crown Prince] Mohammed bin Salman originally wanted against Iran, was a very confrontational policy – that they are willing to come to terms with Iran, and co-exist, which is I think the direction they are seemingly going in,” Toossi said.