With our correspondent in the United States, Guillaume Naudin
The resumption of diplomatic relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran under Chinese auspices has caused consternation, particularly in the United States, where there is some reluctance. Minimal service on the part of the Biden administration.
At the State Department we are not responding, not even by press release. The only direct response comes from the communications coordinator for national security issues. John Kirby states that Washington supports all efforts to reduce tensions in the Middle East and in particular to end the war in Yemen.
He also claims that although his country was not involved in the negotiations, it was kept up to date on every step by the Saudi side. However, he is cautious about Iran’s willingness to live up to its commitments, noting that, in American experience, the Islamic Republic does not always keep its word.
However, since that deal was struck under the aegis of China, which Washington sees as a systemic rival, Mr Kirby refutes the idea of an American withdrawal from the region, which Beijing would use to expand its influence.
When asked about the agreement, Joe Biden did not comment directly. He prefers to state that anything that could ease tensions between Israel and its Arab neighbors would be a good thing. The Jewish state wants to establish diplomatic relations with Riyadh. But the Saudi kingdom has evidently chosen to do so with Iran first, a staunch opponent of Israel and the United States.
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A real slap in the face from Israel’s point of view
With our correspondent in Jerusalem, MichaelPaul
This new situation is a real slap in the face to Washington and Israel, say the Israeli media. Bad news, say some commentators.
The opposition and the majority reject each other’s responsibility. A senior Israeli political source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said at a briefing in Rome, where Binyamin Netanyahu is currently staying, that the previous government was responsible.
Nonsense, replies opposition leader Yaïr Lapid. In a press release, he specifies that everything stopped with the creation of this extremist coalition in Israel and when the Saudis understood that Mr. Netanyahu was now a weak politician who no longer had any influence on the Americans.
“The world keeps turning while we are engaged in power struggles and clashes here,” said Yuli-Yoel Juwel, MP for Likud, the government’s party.
And for the left-leaning daily Haaretz, it is the end of an Israeli dream, the extension of the Abraham Agreement, i.e. the hope of forming a front with Arab countries against Iran.
Now the way is clear, the newspaper continues, to resume talks with Tehran with a view to reaching an agreement on its nuclear program.
►On the same topic : Iranian nuclear power: Tehran turns surveillance cameras back on
Thaw hailed by the Gulf States
With our correspondent in Dubai, Nicolas Keraudren
It’s a resounding deal in the Middle East. Firstly, because the two main enemies of the Gulf, Saudi Arabia and Iran, officially decide to renew their relations, but also because China, where this agreement was signed, is playing a new diplomatic role beyond economic interests.
In the press release released on Friday, the official Saudi press agency did not fail to underline “His Excellency President Xi Jinping’s noble initiative” from the outset.
Does this mean that China will replace American influence in this region of the world? Nothing is less safe. But that phrase sends a clear message to Washington, Riyadh’s historic ally, with whom relations have been strained, to say the least, for some time.
In any case, the news was welcomed by Saudi Arabia’s neighbors and partners in the Gulf. At its head is the Sultanate of Oman, which has been an important mediator between the two countries for the past three years. And also from the United Arab Emirates, which sent their ambassador back to Tehran last summer in the hope of regional relaxation.
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Iran’s Supreme National Security Council Secretary Ali Shamkhani, right, China’s top diplomat Wang Yi, center, and Saudi National Security Advisor Musaad bin Mohammed al-Aiban, in Beijing on Friday, March 10, 2023. PA
A “peaceful and responsible power”?
With our correspondent in Beijing, Stephane Lagarde
This tripartite statement comes after four days of secret negotiations between Beijing and the two major Middle East rivals.
Images circulating on social media show three large tables in a triangle and the Saudi, Chinese and Iranian flags against a backdrop of orientalist paintings such as we regularly see on the walls of palaces in the People’s Republic of China.
Between the two top security officials in Tehran and Riyadh, the director of the Bureau of the Chinese Communist Party’s Central Committee for Foreign Affairs hailed a victory for “dialogue and peace.”
As a “good faith” and “reliable” mediator, China has fulfilled its duties as host and mediator of the talks, it said Wang Yi to the press, the Saudi statement, in which she, in turn, thanked the Chinese President profusely for his “support for the development of good-neighborly relations between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Islamic Republic of Iran”.
“The recent one visit by Ebrahim Raïsi in Beijing and his talks with Xi Jinping served as the basis for new negotiations between the Iranian and Saudi delegations,” said the secretary of the Supreme National Security Council of Iran.
These promises to resume talks must now be implemented. But for Beijing, which regularly reiterates that it wants to play the role of “peaceful and responsible power,” this mediation operation would only be the successful implementation the global security initiative presented by China two weeks ago.
Few details have leaked out of those talks, apart from the tripartite statement, which said that in addition to reopening diplomatic missions within two months, the two former rivals also agreed to activate a signed cooperation and security agreement in 2001.
Two questions to warm up relationships
With this rapprochement, Beijing therefore signs a diplomatic coup that the United States must watch as a spectator. This is the analysis of Héloïse Fayet, researcher at the French Institute for International Relations (Ifri).
“It shows that the United States has a less and less important role to play in the Middle East, she explains, but it may be a dynamic of its own choosing. We remember that in 2021 there were announcements of changing American stances in the Middle East and we know that the impact and political, diplomatic and strategic clout that the US has, albeit still in the tens of thousands American soldiers there United States may have is much reduced. »
Relations between the United States and Saudi Arabia have been complicated, especially since Joe Biden came to power. We remember his trip to Saudi Arabia, which was unsuccessful. Relations between the United States and Iran, let’s not even talk about it. And so, effectively, the United States did not even appear as a potential partner, as a potential mediator. He was not expected to play a role in the mediation between Saudi Arabia and Iran. On the other hand, China’s very strong position is perhaps a little more surprising.
Héloïse Fayet, researcher at the French Institute of International Relations (Ifri)
The Ifri researcher believes that Iranians and Saudis have an interest in this rapprochement: “Iran and Saudi Arabia are the two largest powers in the Middle East, which often have divergent interests that can be presented as a competition for religious dominance in the Middle East . militarily and politically, but it is of course always more reassuring for regional stability when the two countries exchange ideas. »
So the main benefit for both countries is a much lower risk of military or political escalation. On the Saudi side specifically, if Iran ever reduces its support for the Houthis, Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen against the Houthis, who are partially Iran-backed, can be expected to get easier. And then, on the Iranian side, it allows you to really have a breathing valve as Iran becomes increasingly cornered and isolated on the international stage. So there you have it, a little breather for Iran.
Héloïse Fayet on the interest of Riyadh and Tehran in this rapprochement