The Beijing Talk brings precious hope for the Palestinian people: Chinese FM

(ECNS) -- At China's invitation, senior representatives of 14 Palestinian factions held reconciliation talks in Beijing from Sunday to Tuesday. On Tuesday morning, Member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Foreign Minister Wang Yi attended and addressed the closing session of the talks. The Palestinian factions signed the Beijing declaration on ending division and strengthening Palestinian national unity.

"This is the first time that all 14 Palestinian factions gathered in Beijing and held talks for reconciliation. It brings precious hope for the Palestinian people who have suffered for too long," Chinese FM spokeswoman Mao Ning said at a regular press conference on Tuesday.

"The declaration commends China’s sincere effort to support the rights of the Palestinians, end division and bring about a unified position among the Palestinian factions.The declaration stresses the need to hold, under the auspices of the UN, an international conference with a full mandate and broad-based participation from the region and beyond," she remarked.

According to the declaration, parties believe that the Beijing talks demonstrated a positive and constructive spirit, and agree to realize national unity among all factions under the framework of the Palestine Liberation Organization, the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, she introduced.

“The declaration reaffirms commitment to establishing an independent State of Palestine with Jerusalem as the capital city based on relevant UN resolutions and ensuring the integrity of Palestinian territory including the West Bank, Jerusalem and Gaza. Parties are ready to, in line with the consensus of Palestinian factions and the existing basic law of Palestine, establish an interim national reconciliation government, carry out reconstruction in Gaza and prepare and hold a general election as soon as possible in accordance with the adopted election laws.”, she said..

Parties stressed the need to take practical steps to form a new Palestinian national council in line with the adopted election laws. Parties unanimously agreed to activate the provisional Unified Leadership framework which will function institutionally, and jointly carry out political decision-making. Parties agreed to set up a collective mechanism to fully implement the provisions of the declaration and create a timetable for the implementation process, she added.

“As Foreign Minister Wang Yi said in his remarks, the most important consensus of the talks is to achieve reconciliation and unity among all 14 factions, the most central outcome is the reaffirmation of the PLO as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, the most outstanding highlight is the consensus on post-conflict governance in Gaza and forming an interim national reconciliation government, and the strongest aspiration is to realize true independent statehood of Palestine in accordance with relevant UN resolutions,” the spokesperson added.

“In his remarks, Foreign Minister Wang Yi put forward China’s three-step initiative regarding the ongoing Gaza conflict. First step: achieving comprehensive, lasting and sustainable ceasefire in the Gaza Strip as soon as possible, and ensuring unimpeded access to humanitarian aid and rescue on the ground. Second step: making joint efforts toward post-conflict governance of Gaza under the principle of ‘the Palestinians governing Palestine’ Third step: making Palestine a full UN member state and beginning to implement the two-State solution. These three steps are interlocked and all of them are indispensable,” Mao added.

“China and Palestine are each other’s trusted brothers and partners. China looks forward to the day when Palestinian factions achieve internal reconciliation and, on that basis, realize national unity and independent statehood as early as possible. We will continue to work relentlessly to this end with the relevant parties,” the spokesperson concluded.