China’s Saudi Iranian mediation spotlights flawed regional security policies.

By James M. Dorsey To watch a video version of this story on YouTube please click here. A podcast version is available on Soundcloud, Itunes , Spotify , Spreaker , and Podbean. A Chinese-mediated Saudi-Iranian reconciliation potentially casts a spotlight on fundamentally flawed security policies of regional powers, including not only the kingdom and Iran but also the United Arab Emirates. While much of the discussion in recent years has focused on Iran’s strategy of creating a defense line far beyond its borders by nurturing and/or supporting aligned militias in various Arab countries, Saudi Arabia, and, even more so, the UAE, have adopted similar approaches. To be sure, Iran has itself to blame for being the focal point of the debate. Its nurturing and/or support of militias-cum-political organizations such as Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Popular Mobilization Units in Iraq, Houthi rebels in Yemen, and in Syria, the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, has been one