China Looks To Play Peacemaker in the Middle East

A rocket barrage on a strategic air base in northern Israel sent from Lebanon by Hizballah is the latest in a growing string of events in the Middle East that analysts say could boost China's standing in the region and create new opportunities for it to expand its influence.That January 6 attack adds to other intensifying violence -- from attacks by Yemen's Iran-backed Huthis on commercial shipping in the Red Sea, strikes by Tehran-linked groups on U.S. bases in Iraq, a deadly bombing in southern Iran claimed by the Islamic State group, and the…