Infographic. Iranian President Raisi. Photo: Xinhua News Agency
On March 10, the People's Republic of China, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Islamic Republic of Iran issued a trilateral joint statement in Beijing, announcing the resumption of diplomatic relations that had been severed for seven years.
A wave of reconciliation then quickly emerged in the Middle East and North Africa. From Syria to the United Arab Emirates, from Egypt to Turkey, relations between countries have begun to recalibrate, and the Middle East and North Africa, a land of long-turmoil, has a rare opportunity to reshape geopolitical relations.
However, not everyone is happy with the geopolitical changes in the region.
Multinational summit diplomacy "breaks the ice"
After Saudi Arabia and Iran announced the resumption of diplomatic relations, the two countries have exchanged technical teams to inspect the embassies in Tehran and Riyadh with a view to reopening the embassies and sending missions within two months.
At the same time, Mohammad Jamhidi, deputy director of political affairs in the Office of the President of Iran, revealed on the 19th that Saudi Arabian King Salman has sent a letter to Iranian President Ibrahim Raisi, inviting Raisi to visit Saudi Arabia. In his letter, Salman welcomed the agreement of "two fraternal countries" to resume diplomatic relations.
For Saudi Arabia and Iran, "fraternal countries" is a rare phrase.
If Raisi's visit to Saudi Arabia takes place, it will be the first time in 16 years that an Iranian president has set foot on Saudi soil. The last time an Iranian president visited Saudi Arabia was during the Ahmadinejad period in 2007.
While Shai was preparing for summit diplomacy, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his wife Asma al-Assad arrived in the UAE on the 19th to begin their visit. This is Bashar's second visit to the UAE since March last year, and Asma al-Assad's first official visit since 2011.
At the beginning of the Syrian civil war, Syria was once expelled from the Arab League, and the United Arab Emirates also supported Syrian rebels. Now, UAE President Mohammed Mohammed Mohammed says it's time for Syria to return to the Arab world.
Turkey and Egypt, which have been at war for 10 years, are also planning summit talks after Turkey's election in May. In 2013, after Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, who had good relations with Turkey at the time, stepped down and Sisi took over, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he would "never talk to someone like Sisi." But now, the winds of reconciliation in the Arabian Peninsula are also blowing to Turkey and Egypt.
Infographic. The old city of Sana'a, the capital of Yemen. Photo: Xinhua News Agency/Ou Xin
Yemen's Houthis call Saudi Arabia "brother"
The resumption of diplomatic relations in the Shai has also affected the situation in Yemen.
Yemen was divided between the North and the South during the period when the British fought with the Ottoman Empire over the Arabian Peninsula. After the reunification of North and South Yemen in 1990, the dispute between the Zade and Sunnis continued.
After the outbreak of the Iraq War in 2003, the Zaide group represented by the Houthis accused the United States of invading, and then developed into the Houthis. By 2014, Yemen's Houthi had taken control of the capital, Sana'a, forcing the Yemeni government to move to Aden. In 2015, Saudi Arabia organized a coalition to carry out military strikes against the Houthis, which has been nearly seven years now.
After Shai'i issued a joint statement in Beijing, the pro-Houthi account said on social platforms: "Saudi Arabia is our brother, we are a country." This war is because of the United States and Israel, not Saudi Arabia. ”
This was followed by a series of rare linkages between the Saudis, Iran, Yemeni governments and the Houthis: on March 12, representatives of both sides to the conflict in Yemen launched the seventh round of prisoner exchange negotiations in Geneva, Switzerland. In 2018, the two sides agreed to exchange about 15,000 prisoners of war, but this has never been done.
On March 16, the Wall Street Journal quoted U.S. and Saudi officials as saying that Iran had agreed to stop arms deliveries to the Houthis in Yemen as part of an agreement to re-establish diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia.
Last year, Mahdi Mahdi, chairman of Yemen's Houthi Supreme Political Council, said the Houthis could unilaterally stop attacks on Saudi Arabia, and if Saudi Arabia made such a commitment, the temporary truce would turn into a permanent truce.
Now, this opportunity has arrived.
Infographic. Capitol in Washington, D.C., USA. Photo: Xinhua News Agency
The U.S. Senate is doing it again
For a long time, the United States has presented itself as the arbiter and guarantor of the Middle East and North Africa.
Since the Trump era, the United States has taken the "Abraham Accords" as the strategic base point in the Middle East and promoted the establishment of diplomatic relations between the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain and Israel, but this so-called policy of building peace in the Middle East is actually to win over Sunni countries to establish an "anti-Shiite arc" against Iran, Syria and other countries. This policy has not solved such old problems as the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, but has also brought new factors of instability to the Middle East region.
The seismic change in the resumption of diplomatic relations between the two major Sunni and Shiite countries, brokered by China, actually shattered the U.S. strategy in the Middle East. Although the United States pays lip service to this, it is not.
On March 15, U.S. Senate Democratic Senator Chris Murphy and Republican Senator Mike Lee co-sponsored a resolution requiring the Biden administration to submit a report on Saudi Arabia's human rights record within 30 days, under a provision of the Foreign Assistance Act. If it fails to do so within 30 days, the United States will cease all security assistance to Saudi Arabia — that is, cancel the security guarantees promised to Saudi Arabia in the past.
This is the first time the U.S. Senate has invoked the law. The reason why it chose to put pressure on Saudi Arabia is that there is no normal diplomatic relationship between the United States and Iran.
Obviously, this move reflects that some people in the United States are uncomfortable with the independent diplomacy of the Middle East and North African countries.
This also reflects the game between two security views: for a long time, the United States has been accustomed to wooing some allies to "exchange confrontation for security" in order to gain American dominance, as it is in the Middle East and in Ukraine. But a series of recent ice-breaking moves in the Middle East and North Africa show that more and more countries are breaking with this security concept set by the United States.
Written by / Lifan Xu (Columnist)
Editor / Liu Yunyun
Proofreading / Chen Diyan