Lila Elkins
Centerspread Editor
America found itself on the peace-making sidelines when Beijing brokered a peace deal between Saudi Arabia and Iran. When the two Middle Eastern countries signed the deal on March 10th, China became a powerful player in the international game of diplomacy. The deal was this: Iran promised to suspend its support for militant groups and stop further attacks on Saudi Arabia. Iran and Saudi Arabia were also fighting a proxy war in Yemen and this agreement is supposed to ease the violence. China’s role in bringing two powerful yet unpredictable countries together allowed it to step where America wouldn’t and couldn’t. The United States has had a tumultuous relationship with Saudi Arabia ever since the kidnapping and killing of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, and a failed agreement in which Saudi Arabia agreed to lower gas prices but did not. Steven A. Cook, a senior fellow for Middle East Studies at the Council for Foreign Relations, said, “Some folks in the Gulf clearly see this as the Chinese century. The Saudis have expressed interest in joining the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and a good deal of their oil goes to China.” So, what does this all mean? Could the U.S. and China be in an all-out peace-brokering battle? Or is this a step in the direction of world peace? It might not be either. China is no Western democracy, nor are Iran and Saudi Arabia, and the fact that non-democratic countries are banding together could create a greater contrast between the politics of the east and the west. As of right now, we know that China, similar to the U.S., is a mediator between countries and could continue on this path of creating peace in the future.