Saudi Arabia’s king Salman last week invited Beijing to take a more active part in Middle East politics and in response, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said it would be happy to act as mediator between Riyadh and Tehran – and this on top of preliminary investment deals with a potential total value of $65 billion.
Just days after king Salman’s departure from China, Israel’s PM Netanyahu headed there, saying that “Israel is in high demand,” citing recent trips to Washington and Moscow. Ahead of the visit, China’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said “it is hoped” that Saudi Arabia and Israel will both contribute to peace in the Middle East.
Meanwhile, a Chinese tech company, ZTE, pleaded guilty to charges of violating U.S. sanctions against Iran, by supplying U.S.-made equipment there for the construction of telecommunications networks.
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