A surprise deal to restore ties between Saudi Arabia and Iran will reverberate across and beyond the Middle East, analysts say.
Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein welcomes his Saudi counterpart Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al-Furhan Al-Saud at the Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Baghdad on 2 February 2023.A surprise deal to restore ties between Saudi Arabia and Iran will reverberate across and beyond the Middle East, analysts said Friday, touching everything from Yemen's war to China's regional engagement.
"The general feeling ... was that the Saudis were particularly frustrated and felt that restoring diplomatic ties was their trump card, so it seemed like it was something that they didn't want to budge on," she said.Analyst Hussein Ibish agreed, calling it "a major development in Middle East diplomacy".The deal's implications may be felt most immediately in Yemen, where a Saudi-led military coalition has been fighting Iran-backed Huthi rebels since 2015.
By mending ties with Iran - and potentially stepping back from Yemen - Saudi Arabia can continue a wide-ranging diplomatic push that has also involved recent rapprochements with Qatar and Turkey. Despite its escalating engagement with the region - including a high-profile visit by Xi Jinping to Riyadh in December - Beijing has long been seen as reluctant to delve into its thornier diplomatic quagmires."China is now the godfather of this agreement and that holds great weight," said Ali Shihabi, a commentator who is close to the government.
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