Can peace still be restored in the Middle East?

April 25, 2024

BEIJING – China has expressed profound disappointment following the US veto of a Palestinian request for full UN membership in the UN Security Council on April 18. The resolution received 12 votes in favor, two abstentions from the UK and Switzerland, and one opposing vote from the US.

In March 2023, Saudi Arabia and Iran achieved reconciliation with China’s mediation, subsequently followed by Turkiye easing decade-long tensions with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. It was also anticipated that relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia would normalize.

But the Hamas attacks on Israel on Oct 7, 2023, and the outbreak of the Israel-Palestine conflict have “halted” the reconciliation trend in the Middle East. Saudi Arabia has postponed the talks with Israel to normalize relations, with Arab countries divided over whether and how to punish Israel for the relentless attacks on Gaza, in which nearly 34,000 people, a majority of them women and children, have been killed.

Relations between Israel and Turkiye, too, are not normal. Worse, Israel bombed the Iranian Consulate in Syria on April 1, raising tensions to a new height in the Middle East. And after Iran retaliated by launching a calculated attack on Israel on April 14, Israel’s response is being closely watched.

Before the Gaza crisis, the reconciliation trend reflected the Middle East’s desire for peace. The ongoing Israeli attacks on Gaza and the Iran-Israel confrontation show that long-term peace remains a dream for the Middle East. It is not difficult to ascertain that the root cause of confrontations and conflicts in the region is the Palestinian issue and the mutual dislike between Iran and Israel.

Immediately after the Oct 7 Hamas attacks,