China reported on Tuesday that Hamas and Fatah, two of the country’s largest Israeli organizations, recently met in Beijing for “in-depth and candid talks on promoting intra-Palestine peace.”
According to Lin Jian, a spokesman for the foreign ministry,” Representants of the Palestinian National Liberation Movement and the Islamic Resistance Movement recently arrived in Beijing.”
Without specifying when the parties had met, he continued,” The two factors entirely expressed their political will to reach peace through speech and conversation, discussed some specific issues and made positive improvement.”
After fierce fighting with its competitors in Fatah, which maintains limited operational power in the Israeli-occupied West Bank through the Palestinian Authority, the Islamist movement Hamas took command of the Gaza Strip in 2007.
According to an AFP tally based on Jewish official figures, Beijing has been calling for an instant peace since the violent group’s initial attack on Israel’s Hamas in October of last year led to the deaths of about 1, 170 people, mostly civilians, in Israel.
Israel’s hostile offensive has killed at least 34, 535 people in the Gaza Strip, mainly women and children, the health department in the Hamas- work place said on Tuesday.
Beijing stated on Tuesday that the two groups “agreed to maintain this discourse with a view to achieving Arab unity at an early time.”
According to Lin,” The two sides very appreciated China’s unwavering support for the Arab people’s genuine national rights.”
The Hamas and Fatah members who met in Beijing were not identified by him.
However, an analyst told AFP that Beijing’s” corporate goal is to legitify Hamas as a political party,” in contrast to Western attempts to outlaw the violent party.
” Arab unity, in Beijing’s perspective, is the first and important step for a peace process that leads to a Arab state”, Ahmed Aboudouh, an Associate Fellow at Chatham House’s Middle East and North Africa Programme, said.
” Most important, China wants to keep the speed of good discussion about its role in the Middle East”, he added.
” This entails presenting itself as a trustworthy mediator and power with distinctive behavior.”
China has historically supported a two-state alternative to the Israeli-Palestinian issue and has always been friendly to the Arab cause.
Chinese president Xi Jinping has called for an “international peace meeting” to handle the battle.
In November, Beijing hosted a group of officials from Arab and Muslim- lot countries, in which Foreign Minister Wang Yi warned a “humanitarian crisis” was unfolding in Gaza.
