It’s time to change the rules of the game. Is this ＂reconciliation＂ spring reshaping the Middle East？
"This is a moment to change the rules of the game." On March 10th, when Saudi Arabia and Iran shook hands in Beijing, CNN described it in an article.
The US media described this as "not only easing the long-standing tension between Riyadh and Tehran, but also heralding the end of an era of blood flowing in the Middle East".
The Beijing Dialogue has turned a new page in Saudi-Iranian relations, and China’s mediation has also brought new hope for peace and stability in the Middle East.
On the 10th of this month, under the mediation of China, two big countries in the Middle East — — Saudi Arabia and Iran agreed to end the seven-year estrangement and resume diplomatic relations. A "reconciliation tide" in the Middle East has thus opened.
Turkey and Egypt agreed to resume diplomatic relations at ambassadorial level as soon as possible, and Syria and Saudi Arabia normalized their relations 12 years after breaking diplomatic relations.
Previous hostile parties in the Middle East shook hands and made peace. Some analysts believe that the situation in the Middle East has ushered in a long-lost "diplomatic spring".
Shay shook hands and made peace.
Foreign Ministers of Saudi Arabia and Iran
Bilateral talks will be held during Ramadan.
In the early morning of 27th local time, Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan telephoned Iranian Foreign Minister Abdullahiyan, and the two sides agreed to hold bilateral talks during Ramadan this year.
According to the report of Saudi National News Agency, the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia and Iran also "discussed some issues of common concern according to the agreement signed by the two sides in China". Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar and an important month for Muslims all over the world. This year’s Ramadan is from late March to mid-April in the Gregorian calendar.
As representative countries of Sunni and Shia sects of Islam, Saudi Arabia and Iran have always been opposed to each other on many regional issues. In 2016, the two countries broke off diplomatic relations directly. Affected by this, some other Gulf Arab countries have also broken off diplomatic relations with Iran or downgraded their diplomatic relations.
From March 6 to 10 this year, with the mediation and support of the China government, representatives of Saudi Arabia and Iran held a dialogue in Beijing.
On March 10th, the two countries reached the Beijing agreement, and the three parties of China, Saudi Arabia and Iraq signed and issued a joint statement, announcing that Saudi Arabia and Iraq agreed to resume diplomatic relations, stressing that the three parties will make joint efforts to safeguard the basic norms of international relations and promote international peace and security.
Ali Shamkhani, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, said: We hope that this new chapter will end the deadlock in relations between the two countries in the past seven years, bring more stability and security to the region and bring greater development and prosperity to the people.
Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bluntly said that China was the best "middleman" to facilitate the resumption of diplomatic relations between Saudi Arabia and Saudi Arabia.
Iran is ready to resume
Economic ties with Arab countries
Five days after the Beijing Agreement was reached, Saudi Finance Minister Mohammad Jia Dan said at a financial forum in Riyadh on March 15th that Saudi Arabia would invest in Iran "soon". In his view, Saudi Arabia has many investment opportunities in Iran. As long as both sides abide by the agreement, "there are no obstacles."
According to the Russian satellite news agency reported on the 21st, Iranian Minister of Economy and Finance ihsan Handuzi said that Iran is ready to resume economic ties with all Arab countries in the Middle East after the signing of the agreement to resume diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia.
At present, the two countries are facing totally different economic situations. As part of Vision 2030, Saudi Arabia has made a lot of international investment and launched large-scale projects worth trillions of dollars to realize diversified economic development. However, Iran’s economic situation is difficult because of Western sanctions. Investment from Saudi Arabia will greatly help Iran’s battered economy.
Ice-breaking trip in Syria
Saudi Arabia
Or accept Syria to reintegrate into the Arab world.
On March 23rd, Reuters reported that Saudi Arabia and Syria agreed to reopen their embassies through consultation.
It is reported that after the Muslim festival Eid al-Fitr at the end of April, Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal may visit Damascus, the Syrian capital, and negotiators will strive to reach relevant agreements before then.
This is the first dialogue between Saudi Arabia and Syria since 2012, and it is also regarded as another "historic moment" after Saudi Arabia and Iran resumed diplomatic relations.
In 2011, after the civil war broke out in Syria, some Arab countries made bad relations with the Syrian government. At that time, Saudi Arabia supported the Syrian opposition against the Syrian government led by Bashar al-Assad. In 2012, the two countries officially broke off diplomatic relations. In the past 12 years, there has never been formal official contact between the two countries.
On February 6 this year, two major earthquakes occurred in the border areas of Turkey and Syria. A week after the earthquake, a Saudi plane carrying relief supplies landed at Aleppo International Airport in Syria. This is the first time that a Saudi plane has landed in the Syrian government-controlled area since the outbreak of the Syrian civil war in the past 12 years.
In May this year, Saudi Arabia will host the next Arab League summit. If the two sides can reach a formal agreement before, the vote on accepting Syria’s reintegration into the Arab world is expected to be included in the agenda of the summit.
United Arab Emirates
"It is time for Syria to return to the Arab family."
In fact, a few days before Saudi Arabia took the step of "reconciliation" with Syria, another Middle Eastern country took the lead in extending its hands to Syria.
On March 19th, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his wife paid a state visit to the United Arab Emirates and received the highest standard of courtesy from the Arab side. UAE President Mohammed personally picked up the plane.
UAE President Mohammed said: "It is time for Syria to return to the Arab family."
Like Saudi Arabia, the UAE also supported Syrian rebels during the Syrian civil war.
At the end of December 2018, the UAE reopened its embassy in Syria.
In October 2021, UAE Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Abdullah led a delegation to visit Syria and met with President Bashar al-Assad, releasing the signal of normalization of relations.
In the recent earthquake relief in Turkey and Syria, the United Arab Emirates was one of the first countries to provide Syria with a large number of relief materials and send search and rescue teams.
The United States is deeply disappointed and uneasy about this.
It is worth noting that both Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are important allies of the United States in the Middle East. Seeing that the two countries have extended an olive branch to Syria, the attitude of the United States is "disappointed and uneasy". Patel, the State Council’s chief deputy spokesman, said: Our position against normalization of relations has not changed, and we will not normalize relations with the Assad regime. Our position on this has always been very clear, and we have also made it very clear with our allies.
Dawn of reconciliation in Yemen
The two sides in Yemen reached an agreement on prisoner exchange.
In addition, since Iran and Saudi Arabia supported the opposing sides in the Yemen conflict, the reconciliation between the two countries will also bring hope for peace to Yemen, which is deeply mired in war.
After several rounds of negotiations, on the 20th, the Yemeni government and Houthi armed forces reached an agreement in Geneva to exchange 887 prisoners of war. On the same day, Hans Grundberg, the UN Special Envoy for Yemen, welcomed the prisoner exchange agreement.
According to this prisoner exchange agreement, the Yemeni government and multinational Coalition forces will release 706 Houthi militants, and Houthi armed forces will release 181 Yemeni government and multinational Coalition forces, including Saudi and Sudanese nationals.
On the same day, Hans Grundberg, special envoy of the United Nations for Yemen, welcomed the prisoner exchange agreement reached by the two parties to the Yemeni conflict. He said that the parties also agreed to meet again in mid-May to discuss more issues of releasing prisoners of war.
In September 2014, Houthi armed forces seized Sana ‘a, the capital of Yemen, and then occupied the southern part of Yemen. In March 2015, Saudi Arabia took the lead in setting up a multinational Coalition to launch military operations against Houthi armed forces.
In December 2018, under the mediation of the United Nations, the Yemeni government and the Houthi armed forces reached an agreement, agreeing to cease fire in the Red Sea port of Hodeida and exchange a total of about 15,000 prisoners. But not long after, the two sides accused each other of breaking the ceasefire agreement, and the exchange of prisoners did not advance as scheduled. In October 2020, the two sides successfully exchanged more than 1,000 prisoners of war. In the past year, the two sides also held a multi-rotation prisoner dialogue in Jordan, but no tangible results were achieved.
Hellier, a Middle East analyst, said: At least we will take action to stop hostilities in Yemen permanently and reach a peace agreement in Yemen, so as to maintain peace on a more permanent basis.
Turkey-Egypt relations are warming up.
Turkey and Egypt will resume diplomatic relations at ambassadorial level as soon as possible.
In this wave of "reconciliation" in the Middle East, there are also Turkey and Egypt.
On March 18th, Turkish Foreign Minister cavusoglu visited Cairo, the capital of Egypt, and held talks with Egyptian Foreign Minister Shu Kaili.
This is the first time that Turkey has sent a ministerial official to visit Egypt in more than ten years.
The two sides agreed to resume diplomatic relations at the ambassadorial level as soon as possible, and urged the two heads of state to hold talks in the second half of this year.
The last time a Turkish ministerial official visited Egypt was in 2012, when the then Turkish Foreign Minister davutoglu went to Cairo to attend a meeting organized by the Arab League on the Syrian crisis.
After former Egyptian President Morsi stepped down in 2013, the relationship between Egypt and Turkey gradually deteriorated, and the two countries downgraded the level of diplomatic relations. Since then, the diplomatic relations between Egypt and Turkey have existed in name only for nearly 10 years.
Egypt and Turkey are both big countries in the Middle East and the Islamic world. The confrontation in the past 10 years has consumed the national strength of the two countries, but failed to fundamentally break the situation on related issues.
In 2021, the two countries started consultations with high-level diplomatic officials. Recently, under the influence of the resumption of diplomatic relations between Shay, relations between Egypt and Turkey also showed a marked warming.
According to the analysis of Qatar Al Jazeera, the relationship between Middle East countries has entered a new period of adjustment and relaxation, which can be attributed not only to the increased willingness of countries to seek peace and development, but also to the demonstration effect produced by China’s handshake with Saudi Arabia and Iran.
This edition of the manuscript combines Xinhua News Agency, CCTV news and reference news.