Top Saudi and Iranian envoys meet in China for a deal that could remake the region
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Years of proxy fighting, missile strikes and mudslinging could be winding down with Thursday's first face-to-face meeting of Saudi Arabia's and Iran's top diplomats in more than seven years.
Saudi Arabia's state-run al-Ekhbariya news channel showed Prince Faisal bin Farhan and his Iranian counterpart, Hossein Amirabdollahian, shaking hands, sharing smiles and sitting side by side.
Iranian media reported the ministers signed a joint statement to confirm the reopening of their embassies and consulates, as well as resuming direct flights and facilitating visas for citizens. The statement also emphasized the importance of reinstating decades-old agreements on security cooperation, trade and investment.
It's a turn for regional foes that have spent years embroiled on opposite sides of the wars in Yemen and Syria, and spent huge sums to back rival factions in Lebanon and Iraq.
The meeting between the Saudi and Iranian senior diplomats in Beijing carries important optics for Muslims, too, as it comes during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, where patience, compassion and mercy are encouraged.
The meeting also has political significance for China, which hosted. A major buyer of oil from both countries, it has ambitions to increase its clout in the region. That poses a challenge to the U.S., traditionally the biggest foreign power and dealmaker in the Mideast.
Saudi Arabia and Iran had been engaged in low-level talks mediated by Iraq and Oman for two years but it was China that helped seal the deal last month. It called for re-opening embassies and reviving old deals on trade and security.
Pivoting away from war, for now
Each country has its own reasons for wanting to de-escalate tensions now.
Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman wants to end the years-long war in Yemen. There, the kingdom has tried but failed to restore to power the country's internationally-backed government, which was ousted by Iran-backed Houthi rebels. The war has cost tens of thousands of Yemeni lives and saw Saudi cities, airports and oil facilities targeted by Iranian-made drones and missiles.
The China-brokered deal to restore ties between Saudi Arabia and Iran could help lead to a permanent ceasefire between the Houthis, Saudi Arabia and other warring parties.
This would free up Saudi Arabia to focus more on the Crown Prince's many mega-projects inside the kingdom, which are intended to create millions of new jobs for young Saudis and diversify the economy away from oil.
For its part, Iran is facing diplomatic isolation, its currency and economy is under intense pressure from U.S. sanctions and its cities were roiled by youth-led protests for months recently. As a member of the Saudi-led OPEC oil cartel, Iran wants to be able to sell more of its crude but is limited by U.S. sanctions. The deal could bring investment and trade ties with Saudi Arabia, the region's biggest economy.
Huge promises and huge hurdles
An end to open Saudi-Iran animosity has the potential to calm conflicts and power struggles in Syria, Lebanon and Iraq. Already, countries like the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt are improving their ties with Iran.
But how far the peacemaking goes or lasts depends on whether the two regional powers can truly mend ties. Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain remain deeply suspicious of Iran's nuclear program, as well as its paramilitary force and support for Iranian proxy militias in the region. They are also concerned about Iran's ballistic missile and drone capabilities — hardware that's being tested and used on the battlefield by Russia in its war in Ukraine.
There are also Sunni and Shia Muslim hardliners on each side that oppose deeper engagement and rapprochement. Additionally, Israel's continued strikes against Iranian targets, including in Syria, remain a source of uncertainty.
Meanwhile, China's role in the Middle East gets a boost. The U.S. is still by far the biggest foreign military force in the region but its attention has increasingly turned toward containing Russia and China. Gulf Arab states have expressed concern that the U.S. can't be trusted to defend them against attacks from Iran. Analysts say that while the U.S. remains Saudi Arabia's top security partner, the kingdom has made clear it will not side with the U.S. against China or Russia.
Thursday's meeting between Saudi Arabia and Iran's foreign ministers is the clearest sign yet that both countries, for now at least, see it in their interest to de-escalate tensions, rebuild ties and reassess their rival policies in the region.
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Transcript
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Two big oil producers are such bitter rivals, they don't even agree on what to call the body of water that separates them.
A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Iran is on the northern shore of what's commonly called the Persian Gulf. That's a nod to Iran, which was once called Persia. Saudi Arabia is just south of that same gulf. It's a majority Arab country, and people often called it the Arabian Gulf. Now, aside from geography, both nations have spent their oil money on an arms race and proxy wars, but now they're mending relations. And their foreign ministers met today.
INSKEEP: That meeting was in Beijing. China has been brokering their talks. NPR's Aya Batrawy is appropriately in between the two nations of Iran and Saudi Arabia. She's in Dubai. Welcome to the program.
AYA BATRAWY, BYLINE: Hi, Steve. Thank you.
INSKEEP: How big a step is this meeting?
BATRAWY: So this is big. I mean, this is the first time the foreign ministers from both countries are meeting face to face in more than seven years. In 2016, Saudi Arabia executed a prominent Saudi Shia cleric as part of a mass execution. And Iranian protesters, they responded by ransacking Saudi Arabia's embassy in Tehran. So tensions were high for years after that. But a couple years ago, they started quietly meeting to cool things down. But this is the first time we see the foreign ministers meeting face to face. And it's not just about optics. This could usher in a major regional realignment, and we're already seeing some of that take shape.
INSKEEP: OK. Well, what does that look like in places like, well, Syria or Yemen? And I'll mention that in both of those places, there are civil wars. And Iran and Saudi Arabia are using their money to back opposite sides in those civil wars.
BATRAWY: Exactly. So those years of wars have torn these countries apart. They've impacted the region. And what we're seeing, though, is that this deal between Saudi Arabia and Iran could help bring an end to the political stalemate in both of those countries. We're already seeing Arab states like Saudi Arabia restore ties with Syria's government that is backed by Iran. And in Yemen, where Saudi Arabia has been bombing Iranian-backed Houthi rebels, there's a push for permanent end to that conflict that's killed tens of thousands of people and displaced millions.
But this also impacts other countries like Iraq and Lebanon, where powerful Iranian-backed militias have influence and where Saudi has backed opposite factions there. But keep in mind that just a few years ago, the Saudis had blamed Iran for a missile and drone strike on their oil facility that knocked out production. So the fact that we're seeing these two countries now sitting face to face in China is a sign that they want to pivot.
And that's because Saudi Arabia wants to get out of the Yemen war and wants to really focus its priority now on big, major developments that the crown prince is launching to create jobs within the kingdom. Iran is isolated diplomatically. They're under U.S. sanctions. There were protests across cities in recent months. And so what this provides for them is an opportunity to kind of end that isolation and to open up new trade and investment with the region's biggest economy, which is Saudi Arabia.
INSKEEP: What obstacles do they face?
BATRAWY: There are definitely obstacles here because the core issues between Saudi Arabia and Iran haven't really changed. Saudi Arabia is extremely concerned about Iran's nuclear program. They're concerned about the reach of Iran's paramilitary force and their proxy militias. They're concerned about ballistic missiles and drones that are now being used by Russia and Ukraine.
But, look, this deal was brought together by China, a major oil client for both Saudi Arabia and Iran. And China's been vying for more influence in the Middle East, and this deal, as a broker, threatens the U.S. dominance in this part of the world. And Gulf nations don't trust the U.S. will defend it against Iran. So the strain in that relationship really gave China an opening. But it's still an open question whether Beijing has enough clout to guarantee that this deal will be seen through on the ground.
INSKEEP: I guess we'll keep listening for your reporting then. NPR's Aya Batrawy, thanks so much.
BATRAWY: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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