President Xi Jinping and visiting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas attend a welcoming ceremony before their meeting at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Wednesday. (WANG ZHUANGFEI/CHINA DAILY)
Proactive role in promoting solution to Palestine issue welcomed by experts
China's proactive role in finding a lasting solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by initiating a meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas offers new opportunities for resolving decades of discord, say analysts.
They also said the move should not be seen as a competition between Beijing and Washington, but as China's regard for Palestine as being another country added to the growing list of China's strategic partnership.
"I believe China's success in brokering a rapprochement between Iran and Saudi Arabia in recent months has boosted Chinese confidence in playing a more active diplomatic role in the Middle East. This role is highly welcomed by many parties in the Middle East," Muslim Imran, director at Malaysia-based think tank the Asia Middle East Center for Research and Dialogue, or AMEC, told China Daily.
He said the Palestinians in particular, have always maintained strong bilateral relations with China and, therefore, "see any Chinese involvement positively" and that the "credibility of the United States is at stake" as "they have been seen as a biased peace broker for years".
"Although the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is probably more complicated than many other conflicts in the Middle East, the growing international influence that China has will probably help it play a positive role in resolving the conflict," said Imran.
Abbas was in Beijing from Tuesday to Friday at the invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping, who put forward a three-point proposal for the settlement of the Palestinian question during his talks with the Palestinian leader.
First, the fundamental solution lies in the establishment of an independent state of Palestine that enjoys full sovereignty on the basis of the 1967 borders with east Jerusalem as its capital, he said.
Second, Palestine's economic and livelihood needs should be met, and the international community needs to step up development assistance and humanitarian aid to Palestine, he said.
Third, it is important to keep to the right direction of peace talks. The historical status quo of the holy sites in Jerusalem should be respected, and excessive and provocative words and actions should be avoided. A large-scale, more authoritative and more influential international peace conference should be convened so as to create conditions for the resumption of peace talks and contribute tangible efforts to help Palestine and Israel live in peace, he said.
"China stands ready to play a positive role to assist Palestine in achieving internal reconciliation and promote peace talks," Xi said.
By prioritizing efforts on the Palestinian front, China acknowledges the pivotal role Palestine plays in the region, according to Belal Alakhras, a political analyst and Palestinian researcher at the University of Malaya in Malaysia.
He said the Chinese efforts have the potential to contribute to regional security, stability, and the cultivation of trust among both the people and states in the area.
"The Palestinians stand to benefit from China's engagement where assistance can be offered in areas where others may lack the ability or willingness to contribute. This includes supporting the Palestinians in their quest to end the (Israeli) occupation and promoting self-reliance," Alakhras said.
"China's initiatives in the Middle East have the potential to enhance the global multilateral landscape, ensuring that this economically and politically important region is not subject to the meddling of other powers, as witnessed in past wars and colonial invasions by Western powers," he added.
'A good start'
Imran from the AMEC said China should engage all active and important players within the Palestinian context and that inviting Abbas "was a good start".
"The signing of the strategic partnership between Palestine and China has pushed few scholars to reiterate the discourse of Beijing competing with the US in the region since its alleged retrenchment. It is not true," Nagapushpa Devendra, a West Asia analyst and research scholar at the University of Erfurt in Germany, told China Daily.
"China is not competing with the US in the Middle East. Beijing has its own goals and ambitions in the region which it wants to attain by adopting a contrasting policy to the US — bringing Middle Eastern countries into its diplomatic and economic orbit. Palestine is just one another country added to the list of China's strategic partnership," she added.
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