While U.S. President Joe Biden has shown nothing but contempt for long-standing allies in the region, both China and Moscow have been quick to exploit Washington's wilful neglect to their own advantage.
By far the most startling change to the political landscape of the Middle East has been Beijing's role in negotiating the restoration of diplomatic ties between Saudi Arabia and Iran, two countries that, until recently, were sworn enemies.
Relations have been strained between Tehran and Riyadh since the 1979 Islamic Revolution established the ayatollahs' deeply repressive regime, with Iran's clerical dictatorship regularly claiming that the Saudi royal family were unfit custodians of the two holy sites at Mecca and Medina.
One of the more outrageous Iranian attacks was a failed attempt to assassinate the Saudi Ambassador to the US, Adel al-Jubair, in a bomb attack on an upmarket restaurant in Washington DC in 2011, which was later found to have been organised by Qassem Soleimani, the head of Iran's elite Quds Force. READ MORE
