The People’s Republic of China – which, at the China-Arab countries summit in December 2022, had called for a rapprochement between Saudi Arabia and Iran – successfully steered the two enemy countries towards agreeing to reopen their respective embassies within two months.

This agreement wraps up the negotiations started in Iraq and Oman. It is the first to take place in the aftermath of a Western-dominated world and is rooted in the principle of non-interference in internal affairs. It therefore rejects Western “rules”, based on “double standards.”

Tehran and Riyadh, which had been allies at the start of the Islamic Revolution, severed ties in 2016 after the execution of the key Saudi opposition leader, the Shiite Sheikh wNimr al-Nimr.

Beijing suddenly emerges as a key player in the Middle East, while the influence of the United States, the United Kingdom and France is in sharp decline.

The Iranian-Saudi rapprochement should make it possible to achieve peace in Yemen, to readmit Syria into the Arab League and to elect a new president in the Republic in Lebanon.

It lays the foundations for the next decade in the region and enables the completion of the regional “Silk Roads” project.