Amy Hawkins
The Guardian / July 23, 2024
Diplomatic coup for China as Beijing declaration sets out deal to unite across territories and prepare for elections.
Leaders from Hamas, Fatah and other Palestinian factions have agreed after three days of talks in Beijing to form a national unity government at an unspecified point in the future, in a move that has bolstered China’s status as a global mediator, particularly in the Middle East.
The “Beijing declaration”, signed by 14 Palestinian factions, also represents a significant step forward in negotiations between the groups, although it is light on detail about how to actually achieve Palestinian unification.
In a speech on Tuesday, China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, said the declaration represented an “important historical moment in the cause of Palestinian liberation”.
Nicholas Lyall, a senior researcher at Trends, a research and advisory firm based in Abu Dhabi, said: “Today’s agreement goes much further than any other past agreements between the parties since their 2007 conflict.” He was referencing the fighting that led Hamas to oust Fatah from the Gaza Strip nearly 20 years ago.
The agreement states that the factions should work together on uniting Palestinian institutions in the West Bank and Gaza, and prepare for national elections. “It is hard to imagine that elections could be held in Gaza anytime soon given the state of the humanitarian crisis there,” said Raphael Angieri, an independent foreign policy analyst, adding that the agreement was “significant” nonetheless.
Beijing supports the idea of a two-state solution in the Israel-Palestine conflict and has called for a ceasefire in Gaza. The coastal strip of land has been under siege since Hamas launched an attack on Israel on 7 October, killing nearly 1,200 people and taking more than 200 hostages. Nearly 40,000 people have been killed in Gaza as a result of the Israeli offensive, with little sign of a peace settlement on the horizon.
Wang Yi, China’s foreign minister, said the international community should support the efforts to form an interim Palestinian government to control Gaza and the West Bank. Photograph: Pedro Pardo/AP
The idea of Hamas being involved in any kind of postwar governance in Gaza is anathema to Israel and the US.
On Tuesday, Israel’s foreign minister, Israel Katz, reacted angrily to the inclusion of Hamas in the Beijing declaration. In a post on X, Katz said the agreement for joint control of Gaza after the war “won’t happen because Hamas’s rule will be crushed”.
In recent years, China has sought to portray itself as a global mediator, particularly in the Middle East, where it is seen as having less historical baggage than the US. Last year, Beijing brokered a detente between Saudi Arabia and Iran, leading to concerns in Washington about the waning influence of the US in the region.
China’s “mediation involvement here is less to do with the crisis itself and more to do with Beijing’s effort to present itself as an alternative global leader to the US”, Lyall said.
Bi Haibo, a spokesperson for China’s foreign ministry, said on Tuesday: “When some other countries add oil to the fire, we try our best to bring peace”. Beijing previously hosted talks between Hamas and Fatah in April.
China has similarly sought to cast itself as a peacemaker in Ukraine, so far with less success. A 12-point proposal for a political settlement published last year has largely been dismissed by western governments.
Last month, Chinese diplomats shunned a Ukraine peace conference in Switzerland on the grounds that Russia was not present. On Tuesday, Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, arrived in Beijing for talks with his Chinese counterpart, in which he hopes to enlist Chinese support to put an end to Russian aggression.
Amy Hawkins is The Guardian‘s senior China correspondent
