Opinion | China's Era as a great power in the Middle East begins

By Tom Fowdy

Last week, Iran and Saudi Arabia agreed to normalize relations in a deal that was brokered by China and Beijing. Both countries are geopolitical rivals, who have competed against each other for dominance in the Middle East through a series of proxy wars that have included Syria, Lebanon and Yemen. Amongst it all, Iran has been subject to coercive US sanctions, and even discrete military campaign against it assisted by Israel, while Saudi Arabia has been a traditional US partner who has received substantial military backing from Washington for several decades.

Because of these circumstances, the fact China has stepped in over these geopolitical fractures and brokered a normalization of ties is deemed as unprecedented. China has never overseen a third-party deal in another region of the globe like it before, leading it to be framed as a "changing global order" by Al-Jazeera. Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute, had told the Qatari news outlet that it was Beijing's position of neutrality which ultimately made the agreement possible, noting that "China did not take sides between Saudi and Iran, has worked very hard to not get dragged into their conflict and as a result, could play a peace-making role."

Unlike the United States, which has sought to violently sustain its hegemonic position over the Middle East through decades worth of wars, sponsored insurgencies and other forms of regime changes, China approaches the Middle East from a position of non-interventionism, which strives to build strong ties with all countries in the region concurrently, and avoids "taking sides" as part of its longstanding opposition to "bloc confrontation" in international relations, or what it denounces as a "Cold War mentality".

Its entry into the region, however, is being driven by strategic considerations. As China's economy has grown, as has its energy demands, leading it to require growing oil imports from the Gulf States and Iran. It is no surprise on this consideration that its preferences for the region involve pushing for peace, certainty and stability, contrasting to the US's deliberate incitement of chaos and conflict in order to sustain the interests of the Military-Industrial Complex. Likewise, as part of the Belt and Road initiative, China seeks to create stable land routes through the Middle East and Central Asia to offset Maritime Routes the US are militarizing.

These pressing interests have led China to co-opt both Iran and the Gulf States simultaneously, announcing strategic partnerships with both. In doing so, Beijing is not taking sides on their respective regional struggles, but is seeking to resolve them. Likewise, both parties have an interest in strengthening their ties with China too. Iran is seeking new economic and strategic partners in the face of US coercion against it, aiming to break out of the diplomatic isolation Washington has been attempting to impose on it following its termination of the nuclear deal.

Likewise, for Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States, China is a critical economic partner while also being an important "alternative" option and strategic counterweight to the United States, their traditional partner of choice. As the world has changed, these countries have grown to understand that unipolar American hegemony is not in their national or regional interests. As much as the US has been an important security partner, they are not an "ally" in the conventional sense, and China's policies of non-interference and respect for national sovereignty is far more representative of their domestic interests as monarchies, than America's policies of pushing democracy and western liberalism.

As a result, closer ties with China allows both Saudi Arabia and Iran to gain political space and autonomy in their relations with the US, be it good or bad respectively. This almost immediately stands to weaken American influence in the Middle East, who requires constant regional conflict and struggle in order to project power in the region. When viewed in this light, the potential spread of a peace in the region, which is not done in their name or preferences, is disastrous for American interests. You can only see how the US has actively blocked peace considerations in many other regions of the world, such as the Korean Peninsula, because it delegitimates the role of American power accordingly.

However, as much as they might hate to admit it, the China backed deal will be good for the US to the extent that it makes a nuclear Iran less likely, although on the flip side it demonstrates that America's ability to influence and contain Tehran is in fact waning, illustrating how the "unipolar" mindset that the US can simply quell or crush countries who defy its will with sanctions is an outdated policy that does not match contemporary geopolitical realities.

Finally, the agreement now marks China's very own "great power" moment in the Middle East, and who can deny it has made a much more favourable impact than a century of British, French and American warmongering? It is a stern warning that US unipolar hegemony no longer exists, and that the days of America setting the global agenda on its own are simply over. It also likewise reminds us that China's bid to push for peace in Ukraine is very much serious, and that Beijing's striving for peace, as opposed to a new "cold war" is also not just political hot air.

The author is a well-seasoned writer and analyst with a large portfolio related to China topics, especially in the field of politics, international relations and more. He graduated with an Msc. in Chinese Studies from Oxford University in 2018.

The views do not necessarily reflect those of DotDotNews.

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