CHINA'S FORAY INTO MIDDLE EAST VIA IRAN-SAUDI DEAL

It will take a few generations for China to establish the kind of linkages the US has established in the Middle East

- LT GEN SYED ATA HASNAIN (RETD)

MUCH has been analysed and written about the March 9 deal between Iran and Saudi Arabia, brokered by China. Most analyses focus on how China has swept the carpet from under the American feet and will now be viewed as a serious player in the Middle East where it has been trying to find a toehold.

The deal is an attempt to secure its longterm economic interests. It is also being viewed as a step towards wielding greater political influence in the region to rival the role that the United States has traditionally played. On the face of it, nothing could be more positive for the region and the world than an assured step towards curbing sectarianism within Islam. The Shia-Sunni rift gets translated into a geopolitical competition for influence due to the two most powerful Islamic nations in the Middle East, Iran (Shia) and Saudi Arabia (Sunni), being from two different ideological camps. Hence the deal has the potential to be a pathbreaker with the caveat that it is handled with kid gloves. Since it has the potential to go horribly wrong too, a brief explanation is necessary.

Another power adverse to US interests entering the Middle East was something coming for long and should not have taken the US by surprise. Ever since 1979, when the Iranian Revolution established the rule of the clergy by overthrowing Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and leading to the detention of 54 US embassy personnel as hostages by a segment of the new ruling elements, the US has been on what could be termed the ‘Royal Sulk’.