Iran-Saudi deal complicates matters for Israel: Kissinger

The recent China-brokered rapprochement deal between Iran and Saudi Arabia is “substantial change in the strategic situation in the Middle East”, according to former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.

Kissinger, 99, who served in the administration of former president Richard Nixon, made the remarks this week in an interview with Washington Post journalist David Ignatius.

“I see it as a substantial change in the strategic situation in the Middle East,” former top US diplomat said. “The Saudis are now balancing their security by playing off the US against China.”

The Saudi-Iranian deal would complicate matters for the Israeli regime since the occupying regime would no longer be able to pressure Iran as easily as it used to before the agreement was signed, said Kissinger.

From now on, it would have to "take into account Chinese interests" if it wanted to keep trying to "[mount] pressure on Iran," Kissinger added.

China as kingmaker?

"China has in recent years declared that it needs to be a participant in the creation of the world order. It has now made a significant move in that direction" by mediating the agreement, Kissinger said.

Ignatius, who interviewed Kissinger, wrote in his Washington Post article that "the US is no longer the indispensable power in the region...”

"China has claimed a share" of the power to act as an intermediary between the regional nations, Ignatius wrote.

Apparently citing another instance of China's growing power in the region, he noted that another major regional player, the United Arab Emirates, had also started to "court" Beijing.

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