Iran, Saudi Arabia & China

 Iran, Saudi relations and the role of China

The brotherly neighboring country China has a unique identity in the whole world thanks to its style of diplomacy. A key aspect of his diplomacy is silence. He neither makes a fuss before the diplomatic process nor raises a fuss after the completion of the diplomatic process. On the one hand, through CPEC, China has given support to a large region of the world, including the Central Asian states, and on the other hand, it has proved to be a major player in the field of global politics by playing a positive role in various global conflicts. On December 7, 2022, Chinese President Xi Jinping paid a three-day official visit to Saudi Arabia, which received significant coverage in the Arab media. On the other hand, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia is trying to make Saudi Arabia an economic power and present a new face to the world. Under the Crown Prince's Vision 2030, Saudi Arabia is focusing on economic development after wrapping up all its conflicts. It is not difficult for a leader with this vision to build relations with warring countries of the world.

He mended the bad relations with Qatar and went to Qatar to watch the football world cup match. Mohammed bin Salman has given a new dimension to the relationship between Turkey and Saudi Arabia and kept a deposit of five billion dollars in Turkey. In response to this move, Turkey improved its relations with the Arab world, abandoning efforts to create a parallel Islamic bloc vis-à-vis the Arabs. Like Saudi Arabia and China, a government with new tendencies was elected in Iran, which has the full support of the spiritual leader of Iran, Ali Khamenei. On February 14, 2023, Iranian President Ibrahim Raisi made an important visit to China. During this visit, many Economic and political decisions were made. In this background, the end of the conflict between Saudi Arabia and Iran is an important global development. Relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran have a history of hundreds of years, but the last major deterioration in these relations came in 2016 and diplomatic relations between the two countries were severed. However, Prince Mohammed bin Salman started negotiations with Iran under Vision 2030 and in 2021, five rounds of negotiations were held between Saudi Arabia and Iran with the support of Oman and Iraq. Later, China played an important role in bringing the two countries closer.

Historically, Saudi Arabia is considered the country of the American camp. There are also American military bases in Saudi Arabia, but Saudi Arabia's inclination towards China and the recent agreement have made Saudi Arabia's new priorities clear. On March 10, 2023, the joint declaration at the end of the talks between Saudi Arabia and Iran in China is the same. The day it was issued was the first day of the start of the Chinese president's third presidential term. The election of that day also made clear the Chinese ambition that in the coming five years, China will play the role of a positive mediator in all global conflicts. According to the joint declaration, the two countries will reopen embassies within two months and will respect each other's sovereignty and not interfere in internal affairs. According to the recent agreement, Saudi Arabia and Iran will ensure the implementation of the 1998 economic agreement and will also implement the 2001 security agreement. The three parties to the talks, i.e. Saudi Arabia, Iran and China, also vowed to use all efforts for regional and global peace. After this agreement, the concern and tension in the Middle East due to the conflict between Saudi Arabia and Iran will end. Peace will develop in the region. Iran will also continue to improve its economic conditions. Although the United States has expressed mixed reactions to this important agreement, it is important to understand that China has challenged American authority by free arbitration in a global dispute for the first time. China has neither asked for military bases nor forced any country to buy arms from it in return for this peace, which has increased China's global stature.

Peace between Saudi Arabia and Iran will have positive effects on Pakistan. The coldness in the relations between Iran and Pakistan will end and there will be a positive change in the internal conditions of Pakistan. This development at the global level can be benefited only when a stable political government is established in Pakistan. The current government's diplomatic incompetence can be gauged from the fact that Pakistan was not fully trusted in such important negotiations. The behavior of China and Saudi Arabia during the negotiations with the IMF is also a consideration for the current rulers. There is a need for a stable political government to come into existence to maintain its role in the global changes and a popular leader like Imran Khan should head this government. Otherwise, the dwarf political leaders would have no value in global conflicts.