China mediation between Iran and Saudi Arabia commendable

Published: March 14,2023

By Staff writer 

The Chinese perception of global security is that there should be peaceful coexistence between all countries irrespective of differences in ideology or political systems.  China has been involved in mediation efforts between Iran and Saudi Arabia and the results have taken the western world by surprise. 

Saudi Arabia cut ties with Iran after Iranian protesters attacked Saudi diplomatic missions in Iran in 2016 following the Saudi execution of the revered Shia cleric Nimr al-Nimr. The rivalry between predominantly Shia Iran and Sunni Saudi Arabia has dominated Middle East politics in recent years, spreading into Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and Yemen.

On March 10, Iran and Saudi Arabia signed a trilateral agreement with China’s former foreign Minister WangYi, in Beijing, committing to re-establish ties that had broken down since 2016. According to the joint statement, the two countries have agreed to reopen their embassies within a “maximum period of two months”. It is evident therefore, that China’s proposal last year of a Global Security Initiative (GSI) has started bearing fruit. 

GSI was first proposed by Chinese president Xi Jinping during the annual Boao Forum on April 21,2022. The initiative is meant to “uphold the principle of indivisible security, build balanced, effective and sustainable security architecture, and oppose the building of national security on the basis of insecurity in other countries.” While western critics have described the GSI as a way of increasing China’s global influence, China’s diplomacy takes global peace more seriously and does not believe in solving peace challenges by use of force. 

Peace and Security analysts have drawn parallels between China’s mediation in the Saudi Arabia and Iran conflict with the US handling of the Russia-Ukraine crisis. The US given its closeness to Ukraine instead of finding a peaceful solution to the conflict, has provided more arms worth billions of dollars to Ukraine which has worsened the conflict. The US took sides which gives chance war as an option to solving the conflict. 

Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, Iran’s foreign minister, said: “The return of normal relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia provides great capacities to the two countries, the region and the Islamic world. The neighbourhood policy, as the key axis of the government’s foreign policy, is strongly moving in the right direction, and the diplomatic apparatus is actively behind the preparation of more regional steps.”

The breakthrough by China in helping mediation efforts for the normalization of relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran is a good example to show that if all countries could support the GSI, world conflicts would come to an end. Although some countries seem to gain more in causing and supporting conflicts around the world than supporting peace initiatives, I believe that many countries are on the right side of supporting what brings global peace and security rather than making war.