China is Uniting Middle East—That's Bad News for U.S.

Posted by freeamfva on June 20th, 2023

China is Uniting Middle East—That's Bad News for U.S.

Adiplomatic deal in the Middle East was notable as much for a breakthrough between Saudi Arabia and Iran as it was for the absence of American input.To get more news about china sucks, you can visit shine news official website.

The March 10 agreement between the regional rivals to imminently reopen embassies after a seven-year hiatus was brokered in secret by China. It raised questions over whether Riyadh had lost trust in Washington as a defender of its security and showed waning American influence in the region.

It also demonstrated the ability of Beijing to mend ties severed in 2016 when Iranian protesters attacked Saudi diplomatic missions in Tehran following Riyadh's execution of revered Shiite Muslim cleric Nimr al-Nimr."The Chinese have now shown that they have the ambition and the ability to play the role of mediator on the world stage," said Trita Parsi, executive vice president at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft in Washington. "This is happening at a time when the U.S. is increasingly embroiled in major conflicts and, as a result, has a limited ability to play a diplomatic role.

"If this becomes the new norm, in which China is a peacemaker and the U.S. is involved in conflicts, it will negatively impact America's global influence and help China portray itself as a peaceful nation and a stabilizing force in the world."Last week, Parsi co-wrote an article in Foreign Affairs that said Washington feared growing Chinese influence in the Middle East and had left a diplomatic vacuum Beijing was happy to fill.

The piece outlined how Riyadh had expected a U.S. response to an attack on Saudi oil facilities in September 2019, carried out by Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen. When none was forthcoming from then-President Donald Trump, Riyadh reassessed its view that it could depend on Washington, making direct diplomacy with Tehran more attractive.
China's initiative signed this month was foreshadowed by American missteps in the region. President Joe Biden was criticized for the drawdown of American troops from Afghanistan in August 2021, while last summer, he could not get Riyadh to increase oil production to ease U.S. gas prices.

"Coming on the heels of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, this represents a further defeat for U.S. diplomacy," Alan Cafruny, professor of international affairs at Hamilton College in New York, told Newsweek.

Although the U.S. still retains influence in Riyadh, Cafruny believes the deal could mean a revival of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which he said is "something the United States would be well-advised to support." Trump in 2018 pulled Washington out of the 2015 agreement limiting Iran's nuclear program.
All Three Sides Were Winners
China's interests in the Middle East have deepened. Beijing reportedly promised Iran in 2021 to invest 0 billion in exchange for oil and fuel supplies. China is also Saudi Arabia's largest trading partner and one of its largest oil suppliers.

"This deal happened because all three sides were winners," said Ammar A. Malik, a senior research scientist at William & Mary's Global Research Institute in Virginia.

"Saudi Arabia is trying to focus on its domestic economic reform agenda by disengaging with regional conflicts on the back of bumper oil revenue years," he told Newsweek. "Iran is struggling to cope with internal protests and trying to put their economy on a growth trajectory.

"China has been keen to bring Iran out of the sanctions regime and this might be a step in that direction."Mohammad Elahee, professor of international business at Quinnipiac University in Connecticut, said that Saudi Arabia is ready to look beyond the U.S. and "may even take steps that will cause consternation in the U.S."