On Iran truce, all sides want bigger China role, but does China?

WASHINGTON — For decades, the United States has cast itself as the guarantor of stability in the Middle East, allying militarily with Gulf Arab states as well as Israel and brushing aside global rival China’s aspirations for a greater role. The U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran shattered the veneer of a U.S.-led order in the Gulf: Tehran has not been deterred by the U.S. military presence but in fact attacked oil-rich and once proudly safe Arab monarchies because of it. China, at least to some extent, helped to halt the conflict. But paradoxically, Beijing is not taking a victory lap, reflecting what experts say is its calculation that it has much to risk from greater involvement and that it gains from the post-war situation, in which the United States appears weakened but still committed to Gulf security. President Donald Trump, speaking to AFP, credited China with pushing Iran to accept the two-week ceasefire, barely an hour before a deadline was to expire on his genocidal threat to destroy all of Iranian civilization. The account was confirmed by a senior Pakistani official source who sai

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