The foreign ministers of bitter Middle Eastern rivals Iran and Saudi Arabia have held official talks for the first time since 2016. First high level talks held between Iran and Saudi Arabia.
A video showed Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud being encouraged to shake hands by their Chinese counterpart in Beijing.
A joint statement said they discussed reopening diplomatic missions within two months and resuming flights. The states agreed to restore ties in a deal brokered by China last month.
It was seen as a sign of China’s growing influence in the Middle East and a challenge to the dominant role of the US in the region.
China has close diplomatic and economic ties with both Saudi Arabia and Iran, while US-Saudi relations have been strained in recent years and the US has had no diplomatic relations with Iran for four decades.
Mr Amir-Abdollahian and Prince Faisal emphasized the importance of implementing the deal to restore ties in a way that “expands mutual trust and the fields of co-operation and helps create security, stability and prosperity”.
They also said they had discussed the resumption of bilateral visits. An Iranian official said earlier this month that President Ebrahim Raisi had accepted an invitation from King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud to visit Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia cut ties with Iran seven years ago after crowds stormed its embassy in Tehran. This followed Saudi Arabia’s execution of a prominent Shia Muslim cleric. Tensions between them have remained high since then.
This rapprochement between the two great Middle East rivals is an extraordinary turn of events, as well as something of a diplomatic triumph for China.
Eight years after Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman took his country to war across the border in Yemen, hoping to crush the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels, reality has set in in Riyadh.
The Saudi leadership has reluctantly come to accept two unpalatable truths.
The first is that Iran is now a powerful military force with a huge arsenal of missiles and proxy militias across the region, a force that Saudi Arabia and its allies are unlikely to ever defeat.
The second is that Riyadh can no longer rely on Washington, despite the nominal strategic alliance between the two countries.
The Saudis liked President Donald Trump, who made Riyadh his first overseas presidential visit in 2017. But they distrusted President Barack Obama before that, after he reached out to Iran and announced a “pivot to the Pacific”.
Today, relations with Joe Biden’s White House are strained as the Saudis cut oil production, raising prices at the pumps despite US pleas.
So the Saudi-Iran agreement is the latest sign that Riyadh is forging its own path, making new alliances, even if it is with countries the US views as strategic threats.
Also read: What Saudi-Iran deal means for Middle East
