China brokers an Iran-Saudi rapprochement

GO BACK, for a moment, to the halcyon days of late 2015, the last time Saudi Arabia and Iran had diplomatic relations. They were at odds in Syria, where they backed opposing sides in the civil war against Bashar al-Assad, and in Yemen, much of which had fallen to the Houthis, a Shia rebel group. Iran was furious over reports that Saudi police had sexually assaulted young Iranian pilgrims at Jeddah’s airport. Four years earlier, America had accused Iran of plotting to assassinate the kingdom’s ambassador in Washington.

Then, one day after the calendar flipped to 2016, Saudi Arabia executed Nimr al-Nimr, a dissident Shia cleric. Rioters in Iran ransacked the Saudi diplomatic missions in Tehran, the capital, and the shrine city of Mashhad. The kingdom quickly severed ties with the Islamic Republic.