On Friday March 10, 2023, China took the world by surprise, by pulling off a very nice diplomatic coup at home.
It reconciled the Sunni Saudi Kingdom and the Iranian Shiite Islamic Republic which, in Beijing, signed a security agreement.
This will allow the two largest powers bordering the Persian Gulf - which are also the two largest suppliers of hydrocarbons to China - to resume their diplomatic relations, which have been interrupted for more than seven years.
The break was made in January 2016, after the sacking of the Saudi embassy in Tehran by furious Iranian mobs.
These crowds were protesting against the execution by Riyadh of a famous Shiite religious leader, Sheikh Nimr Baqr al-Nimr.
A vast Sunni territory that adopted Wahhabi puritanism at the end of the 18th century, Saudi Arabia has a Shiite minority representing 10% of its total population.
This minority, which inhabits the coastal areas of the Gulf where…
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