Chinese President Xi Jinping ‘personally intervened’ to secure Saudi-Iran deal, senior diplomat says
- An interview in the Communist Party’s mouthpiece credited Xi with taking the initiative when meeting the leaders of the two Gulf rivals
- People’s Daily article also says China is willing to play a greater role as a mediator in other conflicts in the region
President Xi Jinping personally took the initiative to help persuade the leaders of Saudi Arabia and Iran to restore diplomatic ties, according to a senior Chinese diplomat.
In an interview with the party mouthpiece People’s Daily published on Saturday, Wang Di, director of the foreign ministry’s Department of West Asian and North African Affairs, also signalled that China was willing to play a great role as a mediator in the region.
Without naming the United States, Wang also accused “some large countries outside the region” of “causing long-term instability in the Middle East” because of their own “self-interest”.
In the interview Wang signalled that China was also willing to act as a mediator in other conflicts in the region
“In December last year, President Xi Jinping went to Saudi Arabia for a state visit. In February, Xi Jinping received Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi during his visit to China,” Wang said.
“During this period, Xi personally persuaded the leaders of the two countries and supported Saudi and Iran to develop a friendly relationship as neighbours .”
He continued: “Middle East countries including Saudi Arabia and Iran wanted to resolve conflict through dialogue and they have been hoping to see a big nation with a sense of strong responsibility promote dialogue in order to achieve long-term peace in the Middle East.”
He said China’s impartial stance and its business ties with countries in the region had helped build trust, adding: “Middle Eastern countries, including Saudi and Iran, trust China as a fair mediator and they are willing to listen to China’s proposals.”
In the interview, released by the People’s Daily on its social media platform, he also said: “China will continue to be a fair mediator in other flash points in the region, to contribute China’s wisdom, to offer China’s proposals and to make China’s contribution.
“China will always be a promoter of peace and stability in the Middle East, a partner for development and prosperity and a promoter of unity and self-improvement.”
Wang was speaking two weeks after Foreign Minister Qin Gang told his Israeli and Palestinian counterparts that his country is ready to facilitate peace talks.
Wang said China has made proposals regarding different conflicts in the Middle east in recent years, including an end to the war in Syria and a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine.
“China’s recent engagements in the Middle East have been more ambitious in their design and scope,” said Jean-Loup Samaan, senior research fellow at the National University of Singapore’s Middle East Institute.
“The China-Arab strategic partnership is unbreakable,” the Chinese foreign ministry said in a statement after the talks.
Since the talks to broker a deal with Iran and Saudi Arabia, top Chinese officials have met the ambassadors of Yemen, Turkey and Iraq.
And earlier this month, Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang had separate phone calls with his Israeli and Palestinian counterparts, saying China could play an “active role” in mediating peace talks.
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It comes as Washington’s influence in the region seems to have waned, particularly on the back of its chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan and the 2018 decision to pull out of the Iran nuclear deal.
“Beijing is definitely more confident and it comes from the fact that they can easily profit from the deterioration of relations between the US and its partners in the region. China sees this US-Gulf rift as an opportunity to advance its own interests in the area,” Samaan said.
China’s engagements with the Middle East in the past have mainly been driven by economic considerations, but analysts suggest there has been a “major shift” in recent years to build a political and security dimension to relations in the region.
“It used to be purely about business,” Samaan said. “Now China seems to be more ambitious politically. Its role in the Saudi-Iran deal provides evidence of that ambition.”
He cited examples of how China has been involved in more “sensitive domains” that openly challenged Washington’s policies in the Middle East.
For example, Huawei has been providing 5G networks to Gulf states and China has sold military systems including drones and light fighter jets to some nations.
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Oliver John, a non-resident scholar at Washington-based think tank Middle East Institute, also noted a shift.
“As far as I know, this is the first time the Chinese have put their diplomatic credibility into trying to resolve a complex regional problem in the Middle East,” he said of the Iran-Saudi deal.
“I think you are seeing that the Chinese are trying to demonstrate that they can bring something valuable to the region in addition to economics.”
As China relies heavily on the Middle East for its energy security, it would also benefit if the region was stable and secure.
John said that about half of China’s imported oil comes from the Gulf, and against the backdrop of Russia’s war in Ukraine, Saudi Arabia is probably China’s “most important” supplier of energy.
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But it is a two-way street – as China looks towards the Middle East for economic reasons, countries in the region have also enjoyed growing importance in Beijing. Saudi Arabia, for example, exported three-quarters of its crude oil to Asia in 2021, with China accounting for about one-quarter of it.
“You are seeing more and more efforts to increase those energy ties, with joint ventures with Chinese refiners and China signing a long-term [energy] contract with Qatar,” John added.
Samaan, the senior research fellow, suggested that China could benefit diplomatically too as Gulf states would be “more prone” to support China’s positions on the international stage such as the United Nations, although he believes the key drivers of China’s foreign policy in the Middle East are economic and energy-related.
Samaan suggested that there may be smaller Gulf states inching closer towards Beijing.
“The UAE is definitely showing signs in that direction. This may eventually take the form of new announcements on strategic cooperation and more ambitious arms sales,” he said.
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Other nations that depend more heavily on a US military presence – such as Kuwait and Bahrain – may be less inclined to engage with Beijing.
Yitzhak Shichor, professor of political science and Asian studies at the University of Haifa, said China is still cautious in its approach to the Middle East and has been careful not to intervene “practically” in countries’ internal affairs – with the exception of the Iran-Saudi mediation.
China’s diplomatic efforts in the Middle East are contingent upon the state of East Asia and US-China ties, he said.
