Chinese leader Xi Jinping approached Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler last year about Beijing serving as a “bridge” between the kingdom and Iran, jump-starting talks that yielded last week’s surprise rapprochement, a Saudi official said Wednesday.
The initial conversation between Xi and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman took place during bilateral talks at a summit in Riyadh in December, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe how the deal — whose ripple effects could spread across the Middle East — took shape.
“The Chinese president expressed his desire for China to be a bridge between Saudi Arabia and Iran.
His Royal Highness the Crown Prince welcomed this,” the official said, later adding that Riyadh sees Beijing as in a “unique” position to wield unmatched “leverage” in the Gulf…
The talks in Beijing involved “five very extensive” sessions on thorny issues including the war in Yemen.
Iran-backed Huthi rebels seized control of Yemen’s capital in 2014, prompting a Saudi-led intervention the following year and fighting that has left hundreds of thousands dead and caused one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.
– ‘Stop supplying weapons’ –
The Saudi official said the talks produced “concrete commitments” on Yemen, but he would not disclose them.
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