The Limits of Middle Eastern Reconciliation: De-escalation Without Alignment

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-609-3_58How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Iran; Gulf Cooperation Council; Rapprochement; Alliance Politics; Regional Security

Abstract

Recent diplomatic rapprochement between Iran and several Middle Eastern neighbours—most notably the 2023 China-brokered Iran–Saudi normalization agreement—has been widely interpreted as evidence of regional de-escalation. Yet renewed tensions involving Iran, the United States, and Israel show that diplomatic normalization does not necessarily produce strategic alignment. This article examines why Gulf states have maintained neutrality despite restored diplomatic relations with Tehran. It argues that rapprochement reflects pragmatic risk mitigation rather than shared strategic trust. Three factors explain this limited engagement: Gulf anxieties over U.S. retrenchment and uncertain security assurances; economic imperatives, including diversification and infrastructure investment, that encourage functional engagement with Iran; and Iran’s use of diplomacy to ease sanction-induced isolation. Drawing on alliance theory and regional security scholarship, the article shows that proxy conflicts in Yemen and Syria, together with mutually reinforcing threat perceptions, continue to obstruct trust-building and durable cooperation. The outcome is a “cold peace”: normalized diplomatic channels and reduced hostility coexist with divergent strategic objectives, contested sovereignty norms, and the absence of collective security architecture, leaving the regional order fragile and vulnerable to external shocks.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Feiyang Wang
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/09/04
TI  - The Limits of Middle Eastern Reconciliation: De-escalation Without Alignment
BT  - Proceedings of the 2026 3rd International Conference on Public Relations and Media Communication (PRMC 2026)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 548
EP  - 554
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-609-3_58
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-609-3_58
ID  - Wang2026
ER  -