China will host a summit between Iran and the Gulf Cooperation Council later this year, reports the Wall Street Journal. The summit with the six-country bloc (made up of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Bahrain, Qatar and Kuwait) will further solidify the normalization of diplomatic ties between Iran and Saudi Arabia, brokered by China this weekend.
The announcement follows December’s first summit between China and Arab states, where GCC leaders welcomed President Xi Jinping’s proposal for a summit with Iran. It would further bolster China’s transition from an economic to a political stakeholder in the Middle East.
