China has suggested it could act as a peacemaker in the volatile Middle East region as it seeks a greater role on the world stage. To find out if Beijing would be willing to mediate in the current crisis, TaiwanPlus spoke to Jean-Loup Samaan, a research fellow at National University of Singapore.
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00:00What role will China play in the current tensions between Israel and Iran?
00:05So far, China didn't really express any desire or any capability, actually, to directly get
00:12involved between Israel and Iran.
00:16The Chinese government has been involved so far only with regards to the Palestinian factions
00:23dealing with Fatah and Hamas, and it does have good ties with Iran and business ties
00:30with Israel.
00:31But despite that, the Chinese government has been very cautious not to position itself
00:37as the mediator here.
00:40In March last year, China brokered a deal between Saudi Arabia and Iran de-escalating
00:45tensions in the Middle East.
00:47Does the current phase of tensions indicate that there are limitations to China's peacemaking
00:52diplomacy?
00:53I would start by saying that almost all the external players here have limitations when
00:58it comes to their influence on the ongoing conflict, be it inside Gaza or the broader
01:04conflict between Israel and Iran.
01:07What we've seen in the last year with regards to China is that the Chinese government has
01:13not been really able to or didn't really express its desire to intervene, for instance, in
01:20the Red Sea crisis.
01:22In the Red Sea crisis, China didn't want to interfere in the conflict.
01:27So it mostly made sure that its ships would not be targeted by the Houthis.
01:35But beyond that and beyond, for instance, the mediation between the Palestinian factions,
01:41the Chinese government didn't want and I think didn't have the ability to play a bigger role.
01:49It is worth looking if in coming weeks, coming months, China may be playing a role with regards
01:55to Gulf countries and Iran, because we know that with the escalation, the ongoing escalation
02:00between Israel and Iran, Gulf countries are very concerned.
02:05Do you expect Israel to escalate further with a response to Iran's ballistic missile attack
02:10on Tuesday?
02:11What seems clear from the statement of Benjamin Netanyahu is that the Israeli government wants
02:19to retaliate after what it considered to be an unacceptable attack on its territory.
02:27We don't know exactly the scale, the nature of the Israeli response.
02:33I'd be surprised if there is no response at all.
02:37But the big question is if it will be similar to what we saw back in April when the Israelis
02:45launched a rather limited retaliation on Iran, destroying one radar, but didn't really want
02:53to escalate further.
02:56What everyone is fearing in the region, I assume, is if Israel goes much higher in terms
03:03of the escalation and, for instance, starts targeting the Iranian nuclear facilities.
03:09But as of today, as we speak, we don't have a clear indication, again, on the type of
03:15retaliation that Israel will conduct.