According to L. Hadar
The excitement with which diplomats and pundits reacted to the news of last week's China-brokered diplomatic deal between Saudi Arabia and Iran could lead to the conclusion that "the handshake seen around the world" will not only lead to peace between the most powerful a Sunni Arab state, Saudi Arabia, and a Persian-Shiite hegemon, Iran, but will also change the regional balance of power, if not the entire international system, sidelining the United States and creating the foundations of Pax Sinica in the Middle East.
In a way, it brought back memories of a historic event: the US-brokered Egyptian-Israeli peace agreement that created the foundation for an Arab-Israeli peace and transformed the Middle East, driving the Soviet Union out of the region and making Washington the hegemon in that part of the world for years to come. .
That 1979 agreement, facilitated by then US President Jimmy Carter, was an event that shook the world. It was concluded against the backdrop of the Cold War, after the 1973 Yom Kippur War (which heightened nuclear tensions between the two superpowers), and after earlier and costly U.S. diplomatic and military interventions in the Middle East that undermined America's position in the Arab region.
Only after a successful diplomatic triumph in 1979 did Washington establish its dominant role in the Middle East, which it later paid with higher diplomatic, military and economic costs. These include the rise of anti-American terrorism (including September 11), a series of protracted and destructive wars in the Middle East, and failed attempts to revive the Arab-Israeli peace process. All this ultimately led to the destabilization of the region instead of its democratization and the simultaneous undermining of the global status of the United States, including in relation to the rising China.
While Americans were fighting and dying in the region, China was minding its own business. He joined the World Trade Organization (WTO) on December 11, 2001, exactly three months after the collapse of the World Trade Center. Facing no major military challenges, it spent the next two decades building up its economy and growing into a global power ready to rival the United States. And thanks to the American military intervention in the Middle East, the Chinese gained free access to the energy resources of the region. Good deal!
There is now a perception in public discourse that the Chinese will now replace the United States as the leader in the region: mediating between the Saudis and Iranians, possibly reconciling Arabs and Israelis, securing oil fields in the Persian Gulf, and using its power to stabilize the Middle East.
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