Ilan Berman is Senior Vice President of the American Foreign Policy Council in Washington, D.C. In February 2020, he traveled to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia at the invitation of the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs to examine the country’s efforts to track and monitor Islamist extremism and rehabilitate religious radicals.
A new day is dawning in Sino-Iranian relations. Earlier this month, Iranian officials revealed publicly that they were in the final stages of negotiations with China on a sprawling, 25-year strategic pact. The deal will, if implemented in full, dramatically expand military, economic, and political ties between the two countries.
The ongoing Saudi social and cultural transformation discourages religious extremism and encourages deradicalization as the Kingdom attempts a “course correction” toward moderation.
