China's four-point proposal well received by Palestine and Israel

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said China's four-point proposal to solve the Palestine-Israel issue is highly comprehensive and has been well received by both Palestine and Israel and the international community at large.

Wang made the remarks in an interview with Al Jazeera after he concluded his Middle East visit to Palestine, Israel, Algeria, Morocco and Saudi Arabia on Dec. 26, 2013. This is his very first visit to the Middle East region as the foreign minister of China's new government.

"During the visit, I spent long hours discussing with Palestinian and Israeli sides on President Xi's four-point proposal," Wang said, according to a press release on the Foreign Ministry website on Thursday.

He added that he had a deep impression from the meetings that both sides saw their peace talks as the sole alternative. They both hoped to continue with it to a fruitful end, and saw the current moment as an important opportunity.

Wang said he told both sides that mutual recognition of each other's right to exist is the prerequisite for peace talks, that mutual accommodation of each other's concerns is an indispensable element, and that putting oneself in the other's shoes is an advisable way to move the talks forward.

In the peace talks, one should try to bring people around with reason rather than power, he stressed.

Wang also told the two sides clearly that this land is the common homeland for both Palestinians and Israelis. The fact that the State of Israel has existed for over 60 years and the Palestinian brothers and sisters remain displaced without realizing their legitimate rights and interests to statehood is not fair, nor reasonable, and should not be allowed to go on. So we support the establishment of an independent State of Palestine on the basis of the 1967 borders and with East Jerusalem as its capital living in peace with Israel. In this way, peace in the Middle East will be guaranteed.

"We will continue to work toward such a direction. I believe that so long as both sides can work toward such a direction and with full support of the international community, a success of the peace talks will be highly hopeful," the foreign minister noted.

The proposal was pushed forward by Chinese President Xi Jinping in May 2013 when China received the visits by Palestinian and Israeli leaders at the same time.

Xi stressed that an independent Palestinian State and a peaceful co-existence between Palestine and Israel is the right direction of a settlement, that peace negotiation is the only realistic way leading to Palestine-Israel reconciliation, that "land for peace" and other principles are the important foundation to advance the Middle East peace process, and that international support is a necessary guarantee for moving the peace process forward.

With respect to the Quartet mechanism, Wang said China hopes that it can truly play a role, especially at this crucial juncture of Palestine-Israel peace talks.

China is open to the mechanism, and is ready to join it if the Quartet so wishes. Even if not joining it, China will continue to work in its own way to move the peace process forward, Wang said.