Democracy Dies in Darkness

Opinion How China is heralding the beginnings of a multipolar Middle East

By
Columnist|
March 16, 2023 at 6:23 p.m. EDT
Saudi national security adviser Musaad bin Mohammed al-Aiban, left, Chinese senior diplomat Wang Yi, center, and Ali Shamkhani, the secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, in Beijing on Saturday. (China Daily via Reuters)
5 min

Henry Kissinger must have a sense of deja vu as he watches China broker a rapprochement between Saudi Arabia and Iran. The triangular diplomacy is very similar to the former secretary of state’s own opening to China in 1971.

“I see it as a substantial change in the strategic situation in the Middle East,” Kissinger told me during an interview this week. “The Saudis are now balancing their security by playing off the U.S. against China.” In a comparable way, Kissinger notes, he and President Richard M. Nixon were able to play off tensions between Beijing and Moscow in their historic engagement with China.