But Chinese state media hailed the agreement as a milestone and signalling China’s emergence as a peace broker in the far-flung conflict, saying it was signed by representatives of 14 Palestinian factions.
Photographs of the meeting showed that Fatah’s deputy central committee chairman Mahmoud al-Aroud and Hamas senior official Musa Abu Marzouk were among those in attendance. Wang said the ambassadors of Egypt, Russia and Algeria also attended the meeting.
Wang called the meeting a “historic moment for the cause of Palestinian liberation.” “The most notable point was the agreement to establish an interim national reconciliation government to administer Gaza after the war,” he said in a speech after the talks.
Wang reiterated China’s support for a “comprehensive, lasting and sustainable ceasefire” and for the holding of a large-scale “international peace conference” toward a two-state solution.
While the joint statement may be a clear diplomatic win for Beijing, analysts were quick to express skepticism about the agreement’s prospects, pointing out that it is only the latest in a long line of similar reconciliation agreements brokered and then abandoned between the two sides since a power struggle that ended with Hamas seizing control of the Gaza Strip from Fatah authorities in 2007.
Beijing tried to broker talks between Hamas and Fatah in April, but it ended without a joint statement.
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According to the agreement reported by multiple media outlets linked to the participating Palestinian factions, the interim government desired under Tuesday’s agreement would work towards the “unification of all Palestinian institutions,” begin the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip and work towards general elections as soon as possible.
After decades of deferring to the United States in its contentious diplomacy in the Middle East, China has in recent years been aggressively positioning itself as a viable peace negotiator in some of the world’s most intractable conflicts.
“China’s Middle East policy is obviously different from that of Western countries,” said Tang Zhichao, an analyst at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. “Given that Western countries have downplayed the geopolitical importance of the Palestinian issue, the lack of mediation by the international community urgently needs to be remedied,” he said.
Last year in Beijing Mediated the easing of tensions Rising tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia last year put Washington in the awkward position of praising a major Middle East deal secured by its main geopolitical rivals.
“The Middle East is not the territory of any great power,” nationalistic state-run tabloid Global Times said in an editorial published on Monday. Beijing has sparked a “wave of reconciliation” in the region by adopting its “unique model of diplomatic mediation,” the paper said.
China has also sought to present itself as a mediator in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. 12 Proposals to End It.
In June, Chinese diplomats rejected Swiss-sponsored talks to end the Ukraine war, claiming they were politically motivated and meaningless unless Russia was present. Beijing, along with Brazil, proposed a different agenda for reaching a negotiated settlement.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba Arriving in Beijing President Trump will meet with Chinese President Putin on Tuesday and hopes to enlist China’s help in putting an end to Russian aggression.
