Xi and Pezeshkian meet at BRICS, Saudi-Iran joint military drills, Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam & Chinese diplomacy, China event in Dubai, tourism to Egypt rising, China-Iraq energy report

I’ll have a separate BRICS post coming later, but for now, a lot of China-Middle East related news today.

China’s President Xi commits to staunch cooperation with Iran amid Mideast conflict - South China Morning Post. I don’t see this as fundamentally different from the recent statements we’ve heard from Wang Yi; it makes sense that at the first meeting between Xi and Pezeshkian that Xi would be unambiguous in his support for Iran, especially at Iran’s first BRICS summit as a member. This seems more like signalling to Israel and the US that China sees an Israeli strike against Iran as escalation. Right now everyone is expecting this to come soon, with Israeli Yoav Gallant boasting on Twitter: “In my conversation with them (Israeli air force personnel) I emphasised – after we attack Iran, everyone will understand your might, the process of preparation and training – any enemy that tries to harm the state of Israel will pay a heavy price.”