As the Middle East enters its end game era,countries are vying for influence and control in the postwar period. With the Syrian civil war winding down, the Islamic Caliphate dissipating and the confusion over who is fighting with or against whom coming to an end, the many parties must come to terms with…Russia, as President Vladimir Putin works all sides toward a resolution…favorable to Russia. Curiously enough, both Saudi Arabia and Iran are shifting their attention to wider interests, with the Saudi king visiting Asia, while Iran, with help from Russia, is moving east into Afghanistan. In these shifts, countries are actually revealing a new and critical role for China in their futures, with the Saudis wooing China to buy more crude from them and with Iran working to secure financial support from China to make Iran the center of Beijing’s One Belt, One Road land route. These new perspectives for the powers behind recent conflicts suggest that a peaceful potential could become more possible in the core of the Middle East.