A Chinese envoy on Tuesday asked the international community to push for peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians.
In his address to the General Assembly last week, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called on UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to join the Middle East Quartet and members of the Security Council in convening an international conference early next year to discuss a genuine peace process, noted Geng Shuang, China's deputy permanent representative to the United Nations.
China believes that this initiative demonstrates Palestine's positive will to participate in the peace dialogue and promote the peace process. All parties should attach importance to it and should consider efforts to create favorable conditions for the political settlement of the Palestinian issue, he told the Security Council.
The international community, not least those countries with influence on Palestine and Israel, should uphold an objective and just position, actively promote peace talks and make efforts to advance the Middle East peace process, he said.
Abbas also said the Palestinian side is preparing to hold parliamentary and presidential elections involving all political factions. China appreciates this and looks forward to early and positive progress in the intra-Palestinian reconciliation and relevant political processes, he said.
Relevant UN resolutions, the land-for-peace principle, the Arab Peace Initiative, and the two-state solution are important consensus that must be upheld in order to achieve peace in the Middle East, said Geng.
The plans to annex parts of the occupied Palestinian territory, if implemented, will seriously violate international law and UN resolutions and undermine the two-state solution. China is seriously concerned, he said.
China noted that the plans have been suspended. It hopes that the party concerned will respond to the secretary-general's appeal by abandoning the annexation plans and returning to the track of dialogue and negotiations, he said.
In addition, the situation in Gaza has recently been persistently tense. It is hoped that all parties will respond to the secretary-general's global cease-fire appeal by earnestly observing the cease-fire agreement reached at the end of August and desist from taking actions to aggravate the situation, he said.
According to the United Nations, the number of Palestinian homes demolished between March and August 2020 hit a four-year high, with hundreds of people displaced, said Geng.
"We urge the party in question to earnestly implement Security Council Resolution 2234, stop all settlement activities in the occupied territory, stop the demolition of Palestinian homes and destruction of Palestinian property, and refrain from acts of violence against civilians. At the same time, the relevant party should fulfill its obligations under international law, and ensure the coverage of basic services and humanitarian assistance to all the people in need in the occupied territories, and fully lift the blockade on the Gaza Strip," the envoy said.
Noting the severe impact brought by the COVID-19 pandemic to the economic and social development of Palestine, Geng said that Israel and Palestine should shelve their differences, strengthen cooperation, and spare no effort to fight the pandemic and safe lives, calling on the international community to ratchet up support to help Palestine meet its economic and humanitarian challenges.
China, he said, firmly supports Palestinians' legitimate demands and all efforts conducive to the settlement of the Palestinian issue, and supports the Palestinian people in establishing an independent state of Palestine that enjoys full sovereignty on the basis of 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital.
According to the envoy, China has lately handed over the fourth batch of epidemic prevention materials to Palestine and signed a donation agreement with UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestine refugees. Besides, new progress has also been made in the Ramallah school project assisted by China. Enditem
