Iran-Saudi Arabia deal a dangerous sign of Western retreat

Iran-Saudi Arabia deal a dangerous sign of Western retreat

Radha Stirling

Despite the fact that Saudi Arabia and Iran have been engaging in talks for several months, no one was prepared for the dramatic announcement that the two countries would resume diplomatic ties. 

The international community was even less prepared for the fact that the Saudi-Iran deal was brokered by China. While the rapprochement between the two traditional rivals in the Gulf is objectively positive and had been hailed as an epochal turning point in the region by world leaders, there are concerns about what the agreement – and the negotiations that led to it – reveals about the declining influence of the United States, and by extension, Europe, in the Middle East.

To put this blasé response in perspective: the United States has been the major mediator in the Middle East for at least the past 50 years; they have no fewer than 18 military bases and around 40,000 troops permanently located in the region. Just last week, US officials unveiled a new set of sanctions against Iran. A spokesperson for US Central Command, or CENTCOM, said earlier this month that “Iran remains the leading source of instability in the region and is a threat to the United States and our partners.” Yet, the United States was simply “in the loop” on negotiations?

While of course, everyone would like to see regional tensions subside, we must ask ourselves what fruits can be borne from the collaboration of three authoritarian regimes with notorious human rights records when there is no democratic moderator?

I have long warned that an authoritarian nexus was being created between repressive states around the world, building a parallel and competing political jurisdiction outside the rule of law, excluding Western governments, and averse to democratic values and human rights.

By cultivating this network of willing renegade regimes, these countries – like Iran, China, and Saudi Arabia – are building a support system that insulates them from Western influence. This can only further deteriorate the human rights conditions prevailing under each participating government. It is an informal alliance of impunity.

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