Category: Geopolitics
State Department Spox: U.S. Not Being Supplanted by China in Mideast as “Some Allege”
The U.S. State Department dismissed suggestions that China’s brokering of a diplomatic thaw between Iran and Saudi Arabia reflects a diminishment of the United States’s influence in the Middle East. Spokesperson Ned Price told reporters that: “In any way you look at it, America is deeply engaged with the ...
Israel Not Happy About the China-Brokered Iran-Saudi Arabia Deal
Few countries are as directly affected by the Saudi-Iran deal as Israel. The announcement seemed to have caught the Netanyahu government off guard and occasioned intense discussion, with incumbent and opposition politicians blaming each other for appearing “weak” and lessening Israel’s clout in the region. ...
Unpacking Israeli Reactions to Iran-Saudi Deal
As Israel’s famously feisty commentariat lays into the China-brokered Iran-Saudi thaw, the country’s reactions will likely have broader impacts. Israel’s own role in the region’s security landscape is at play, but its close relationship with the United States will also influence how Washington deals with the broader ...
India To Discourage Foreign Trade Settlement in Chinese Yuan – Sources
India has asked banks and traders to avoid using Chinese yuan to pay for Russian imports, three government officials involved in policy making and two banking sources said, because of long-running political differences with its neighbor. India, which has emerged as ...
Iran-Saudi Pact Marks China’s Debut as Great Power Diplomatic Player
Friday's news that China brokered the final stage of a diplomatic détente between Iran and Saudi Arabia triggered a torrent of analysis in major news publications around the world. From Asia to the Middle East to the United States, two consistent ...
DC’s Think Tanks Mobilize for Rapid Response to the China- Brokered Iran-Saudi Arabia Pact
Given that China and the Mideast are two of the three primary obsessions among U.S.-based national security think tanks (Russia being the third, of course), it shouldn't be a huge surprise that analysts reacted very fast with their assessment of Friday's rapprochement between Iran and Saudi Arabia. ...
Amid Breathless News Coverage of the Chinese-Brokered Iran-Saudi Arabia Pact, Some Analysts Urge a More Cautious Approach
While the bulk of the discussion in the news media and on Twitter about the resumption of diplomatic ties between Iran and Saudi Arabia focused on the magnitude of the deal -- both in terms of the impact on Mideast politics and because of China's surprise role ...
Chinese Scholars Attribute Iran-Saudi Arabia Pact to Declining U.S. Influence in the Mideast and Beijing’s Personal Diplomacy
Chinese Mideast specialists were quicker than usual in weighing in on Friday's Persian Gulf deal between Iran and Saudi Arabia. Broadly speaking, most scholars attributed China's success in finalizing the agreement to President Xi Jinping's commitment to "personal diplomacy" since 2014 ...
Iran-Saudi Arabia Deal Sparks National Pride on Chinese Social Media Platforms
There wasn't a huge response on Chinese social media to the news that Beijing facilitated the restoration of diplomatic ties between Saudi Arabia and Iran given that it's a pretty esoteric topic for most people. Nonetheless, there was some discussion on ...
The U.S. Doesn’t Seem Sure of What to Make of the China-Brokered Deal
Publicly, the White House says it supports anything that "de-escalates tensions" in the Mideast. Privately, there's probably a lot more teeth-gnashing going on in the corridors of the National Security Council (NSC.) This is because the deal gives China a huge diplomatic win while also bolstering Washington's ...