China brokers historic reconciliation between Saudi Arabia and Iran.

The foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia and Iran met in Beijing, marking the highest-level meeting between senior diplomats from the two countries in more than seven years. The meeting follows an agreement signed by the two sides in March that promised the restoration of diplomatic relations and other steps toward normalization, after talks hosted by China. The warming ties are due to a convergence of interests, and the agreement could help lead to a partial resolution of the civil war in Yemen. The agreement also represented an acknowledgment that the nuclear deal with Iran was unlikely to be revived, along with security guarantees that Saudi Arabia and other gulf states hoped might follow from the deal’s restoration.