Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Qin Gang meet with Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud and Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian in Beijing, capital of China, April 6, 2023. (Xinhua/Ding Lin)

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Although challenges and obstacles remain, the growing trend of regional rapprochement and cooperation in the Middle East is a positive development with the potential to bring stability and prosperity to the region.

CAIRO/JERUSALEM, April 17 (Xinhua) -- During the Syrian foreign minister"s first visit to Saudi Arabia since 2011, the two countries on Thursday announced that they are taking steps to reopen embassies and resume flights for the first time in more than a decade -- one of the many reconciliatory events in the Middle East recently.

The year 2023 has witnessed a strong regional rapprochement in Mideast. Reconciliatory steps are taken one after another to break diplomatic impasses and end the feud over several hotspot issues, which are expected to exert a profound impact on the conflicts-ravaged region.

SUCCESSIVE ICE-BREAKING NEWS

Brokered by China, Saudi Arabia and Iran on March 10 agreed to resume diplomatic relations and reopen embassies and missions within two months, almost seven years after Riyadh cut diplomatic ties with Tehran in 2016.

Then, in a meeting in Beijing on April 6, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and his Saudi counterpart, Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, signed a joint statement, announcing the resumption of diplomatic relations with immediate effect.

Iran also officially confirmed in early April that Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi had accepted an invitation from Saudi Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud to visit Riyadh. And both sides have recently sent technical teams to examine the reopening of embassies and consulates.

Besides Saudi Arabia and Iran, Yemen has also seen progress in its peace process. Yemen"s warring parties began a three-day exchange of more than 880 detainees on Friday, marking a significant step toward peace in the war-torn Arab country.

Saudi Arabia is planning to invite Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad to the Arab League Summit which will be hosted by Riyadh in May, three sources familiar with the plan told media in early April. Such a move would formally end Syria"s isolation in the region.

In addition, Qatar and Bahrain announced the resumption of formal diplomatic relations on Wednesday, while Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Thursday that Türkiye and Egypt will raise their relations to the ambassadorial level in the coming period.

Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad (3rd R) and his visiting Iranian counterpart Hossein Amir-Abdollahian (3rd L) attend a joint press conference in Damascus, Syria, Jan. 14, 2023.(Photo by Ammar Safarjalani/Xinhua)

DEVELOPMENT-ORIENTED RECONCILIATION

Analysts have observed that the trend towards reconciliation in the Middle East is being driven not only by political and security concerns but also by a growing focus on development.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ukraine crisis, and successive interest rate hikes by the U.S. Federal Reserve, several countries in the region have experienced capital outflows, currency devaluation, and spikes in inflation.

Consequently, these countries are now attaching greater importance to development, which requires a stable and peaceful regional environment. As a result, there is a growing consensus that breaking away from U.S. control, reducing tensions, and enhancing cooperation with neighboring countries are crucial diplomatic strategies.

Gerald Feierstein, senior vice president of the Washington-based Middle East Institute, noted that the global pandemic, pressure to address domestic political and economic demands, and the need to promote economic diversification, have together shifted leaderships" attention to "problems at home rather than foreign policy challenges."

In recent years, the social stability and economic development of Middle Eastern countries have been impacted by oil price fluctuations and the COVID-19 pandemic, highlighting the vulnerability of the economies that are overly dependent on oil and compelling the countries to focus on domestic issues and economic diversification rather than international conflicts, Muthanna Mishaan al-Mazrouei, a professor at Tikrit University in Iraq, told Xinhua.

Similarly, Nimrod Goren, president of the Israeli Institute for Regional Foreign Policies, told Xinhua that some countries in the region have chosen to bypass their longstanding rivalries in pursuit of either security interests or economic gains, tightening the linkage between domestic and foreign affairs.

After a three-year hiatus, the Arab League summit resumed in November 2022, adopting the Algiers Declaration which calls for joint action to tackle the regional and global challenges and stresses the importance of unifying efforts to preserve Arab common interests.

Tunisian President Kais Saied, whose country hosted the previous summit in 2019, said in his opening address that the summit"s motto "the reunification" summed up the hope to overcome all the differences that have led to the discord in the Arab region.

Although challenges and obstacles remain, the growing trend of regional rapprochement and cooperation in the Middle East is a positive development with the potential to bring stability and prosperity to the region. By putting aside longstanding rivalries and working together to address shared challenges, countries in the region can foster a more peaceful and prosperous future for their people.