Currently, China has been taking advantage of the U.S. preoccupation with supporting  Ukraine to steal a march on Washington’s interests, particularly in the Middle East.  Unlike the United States, China has avoided contentious disputes throughout the Third World in order to establish reliable state-to-state relations in the Global South.  While the Middle East has become America’s briar pitch, China has concluded long-term energy deals with Iran and Saudi Arabia, and recently orchestrated a rapprochement between the region’s leading countries.  The United States could not play the honest broker role because it has no diplomatic relations with Iran and unreliable relations with Saudi Arabia.