Iran and Saudi Arabia, two of the Middle East’s major countries which have had adversarial relations for years and whose rivalry has defined a major part of events in the region, announced on Friday that they would re-establish diplomatic ties after seven years and will reopen their embassies in their respective capitals.
The agreement was announced jointly by the official press agencies of the two countries and is in many ways historic: Iran, governed by a Shiite theocracy, and Saudi Arabia, governed by an absolute Sunni monarchy, have been involved in bitter rivalries and, due to their size and importance, have often been regarded as the main antagonists in many diplomatic matters and regional conflicts. For this reason, their eventual rapprochement could have extremely significant effects throughout the Middle East, and beyond.
Another important element of this agreement concerns the fact that it was signed in China, in Beijing, in the presence of the Chinese diplomatic chief Wang Yi. China has good relations with both countries (unlike the United States, which is allied with Saudi Arabia but not with Iran), and for the Chinese government to sponsor the deal is a major victory, and a sign of the growing weight of his diplomacy in various parts of the world. In recent years Saudi Arabia and Iran had also held negotiations in Iraq and Oman.
The governments of the two countries, according to the official statement, will have two months to reopen their embassies and manage the return of ambassadors. They also agreed to reactivate a mutual security agreement that had been suspended seven years ago after the rupture of diplomatic ties, and agreed on the principles of respecting the sovereignty of states and non-interference in internal affairs.
The rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Iran has in fact been going on for decades, for both political and religious reasons, but diplomatic ties broke down in 2016, when Iran recalled its ambassador after Saudi Arabia sentenced him to Prominent Shia cleric Nimr al Nimr dies. There were huge protests in Iran at the time, and the Saudi embassy in Tehran was set on fire.
Since then things have gotten worse and worse and the two countries have supported opposing sides in various regional conflicts. The most obvious example is that of the civil war that has been going on in Yemen since 2014, in which Iran has supported and armed the Houthi rebels, while Saudi Arabia is a close ally of the local government that fights them. In recent years, among other things, the Houthis have also carried out attacks on Saudi soil, using weapons that had been supplied to them by Iran.
Furthermore, Saudi Arabia has always been concerned by Iran’s attempts to obtain atomic weapons. Also for this reason, the Saudi regime had in recent years approached the government of Israel, Iran’s main enemy in the region. The Iranian theocracy has never recognized Israel’s right to exist, and over the years has financed and supported and financed numerous armed groups opposing Israel, such as Hamas and Hezbollah. Israel on the other hand has carried out numerous covert military operations in Iran over the years, mainly aimed at trying to damage and slow down the Iranian nuclear program.
For this reason, an alliance between Israel and Saudi Arabia, both tough adversaries of Iran, had seemed extremely likely: Saudi Arabia still does not have formal diplomatic relations with Israel, but maintains rather close informal ties. It is not clear now how the re-establishment of relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran will change things.
It is also unclear how deep this rapprochement between the Saudis and Iranians will go. For now, the two countries have decided to reopen their respective embassies and have reactivated some old agreements, but it is not clear whether relations will extend further also in terms of economy and security.
