Trade leads to peace, reads the liberal maxim, which this Thursday had three unsuspected supporters. The foreign ministers of two oil powers, Saudi Arabia and Iran, sat down today at the table of their first client, the People’s Republic of China, to seal a reconciliation capable of reconfiguring the Middle East.
Your host, Qin Gang, has highlighted prosperity as a common goal. His guests have pledged to reopen their respective embassies and some consulates in the next two months. The gesture of rapprochement occurs in the middle of the month of Ramadan, whose fast they have jointly broken at a dinner offered by the new Chinese Foreign Minister.
“Security, stability and prosperity in the Middle East”. That is the common goal that the heads of Saudi and Iranian diplomacy have pledged to work towards. A bilateral meeting at this level has not taken place for more than seven years. Riyadh and Tehran have been regional rivals since 1979, when the Shah of Iran – America’s staunchest ally in the region – was overthrown by the Islamic Revolution and political turmoil spilled over into the Saudi kingdom as well.
The first step in reconciliation was announced, quite unexpectedly, on March 10, by the number two of their respective ministries in Beijing. Now even a visit by Iranian President Raisi to Saudi Arabia is being considered, even before the end of Ramadan. The monarch’s invitation has already been released.
