2026.06.12
On June 10, Grandview Institution (GVI) and the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) jointly organized a dialogue on Middle East issues, bringing together multiple European experts on the Middle East and their Chinese counterparts for in-depth exchanges on how the U.S.-Israel-Iran war has reshaped the geopolitics and geo-economics of the Middle East and beyond, the prospects and worst-case scenarios of the conflict, and approaches to crisis management and peace mediation.
Both Chinese and international experts concurred that this was a war that should never have happened. Evidence has shown that the traditional approach of reshaping regional dynamics through warfare is increasingly untenable, and that political and diplomatic pathways, along with peace mediation, are the effective means of resolving interstate conflicts and disputes. The war has already shattered the strategic balance between Israel and Iran—the United States is not as strong as imagined, nor is Iran as weak as presumed. The deterrent strategies employed by the U.S. and Israel have significantly diminished in their practical effectiveness, and the leverage available to them to pressure Iran is dwindling. For Iran, however, the post-war challenges across security, economic, and livelihood fronts are even more formidable, with the three-to-six-month window following the war being critically pivotal.
Both sides agreed that China's role in Middle East affairs is growing in significance, and that China and Europe share considerable common interests in peace mediation on Middle East issues, making it worthwhile to explore various forms of cooperation.
Participants List:
Dr. Herta DAEUBLER-GMELIN, former German Minister of Justice
Dr. Gedaliah AFTERMAN, Head of Asia-Israel Policy Program at Reichman University, Israel
Dr. Sebastian SONS, Berlin Representative of Center for Applied Research in Partnership with the Orient (CARPO)
Hessam HABIBI DOROH, researcher on international relations at University of Public Service, Hungary
Marcus SCHNEIDER, Head of FES Project Peace and Security in Middle East and North Africa, Lebanon
Clemens STARKE, project manager at FES Project Peace and Security in Middle East and North Africa, Lebanon
Sergio GRASSI, Resident Representative of FES in China
Prof. Dr. Li Shaoxian, Director of China-Arab Research Institute at Ningxia University and former Vice President of Chinese Institutes of Contemporary International Relations (CICIR)
Dr. He Jingjie, Postdoctoral Researcher at Research Division of Security Studies, Institution of World Economics and Politics (IWEP), Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS)
ZHOU Huijing, project manager at FES Beijing
ZHOU Qizhuolan, project manager at FES Beijing
Ren Libo, President at GVI