The flag of peace in Palestine over the Great Wall of China
Borderless diplomacy
The flag of peace in Palestine flying over the Great Wall of China in Beijing mediates the signing of a national unity agreement among 14 Palestinian factions, including Fatah and Hamas, and is welcomed for the first time since the start of the war by Russian Foreign Minister Dimitrov Kolba.
While the United States is in the midst of a tumultuous election campaign, Chinese diplomacy seizes the opportunity to create a place under the sun. Yesterday in Beijing, 14 Palestinian factions, including Hamas and Fatah, signed a national unity agreement aimed at maintaining Palestinian control over the West Bank and Gaza Strip after the end of the war.
This agreement, finalized after three days of intensive talks, lays the groundwork for a temporary national reconciliation government and is said to be based on four main pillars: establishing a temporary national unity government, forming a unified Palestinian leadership on the eve of the upcoming elections, free elections for the new Palestinian National Council, and a public declaration of unity against ongoing Israeli attacks. However, the real turning point is the peace between Hamas and Fatah, the two main Palestinian political parties that have been fierce rivals since the conflict began in 2006. After that, Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip, from where it attacked Israel on October 7.
Mustafa Barghouti, the secretary-general of one of the 14 factions that signed the statement, explained that the ongoing war was the main factor that forced the Palestinian parties to set aside their differences. According to him, this agreement goes far beyond any other agreement reached in recent years. He added that currently there is no way other than unity and fighting together against this terrible injustice.
Israel is under pressure.
For the Israeli government, which has declared the destruction of Hamas as one of its objectives and launched an attack on Gaza, this agreement is unacceptable.
Israel’s Katz, the Foreign Minister, wrote on social media that Mahmoud Abbas embraces Hamas instead of rejecting the terrorists and invaders. He reveals his true face. He added that this will never happen because the Hamas government will be defeated, and Abbas will only watch Gaza from afar.
Israel’s security will remain exclusively in the hands of Israel.
A notable point is that in the criticisms made by Israeli officials, there has been no mention of Beijing’s role so far.
The announcement of the agreement comes at a sensitive time for Israel, and Benjamin Netanyahu delivered his controversial speech during an official visit to Washington in the United States Congress.
The Prime Minister must now deal with recent changes in US domestic policy, where in recent days Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the election campaign.
Kamala Harris, the Vice President who is competing to take Biden’s place in the White House, has criticized in the past for the way Israel waged war against Hamas. This raises concerns that if she wins the election, she may take a tougher stance against Israel.
Meanwhile, China has good relations with the Jewish government, even though it has supported the Palestinian cause for decades. China supports a two-state solution and has previously recognized Palestine as a country.
Precaution is a condition of reason.
Analysts are cautious about the agreement reached in Beijing and quickly hailed by the Chinese media as a diplomatic success.
This is just the latest in a long series of peace agreements between negotiating parties that have then been broken off.
A similar agreement was signed in 2022 thanks to Beijing’s mediation by 14 Palestinian groups in Algeria, but so far none of these efforts have made significant progress in bridging the gap between Hamas and Fatah.
Even among the Palestinians in Gaza who were dealing with the destruction of conflicts, this declaration was received with doubt and hesitation.
Kerry Thabet, a resident of the Strip whom The Washington Post contacted by phone, said, ‘Come down to the ground and look at the hospitals where there isn’t even a drop of blood to save people’s lives. Look at the people in the northern part of Gaza who are dying of hunger.’
Look at how Israeli tanks are moving without any hindrance. These individuals in Beijing are not my representatives; they are just failed actors.
What complicates the situation further is the timing of this initiative, which took place exactly during the most tense period between the two factions.
Mahmoud Abbas, the head of the Palestinian self-governing body, recently stated that Hamas is responsible for prolonging the war in Gaza legally, ethically, and politically.
Hamas leaders, in turn, accused the head of the Palestinian self-governing body of supporting Israel and the United States to maintain his position, claiming that his mission had ended in 2009.
Diplomatic success for Beijing
However, it does not seem that past failures and current divisions in Beijing, which previously hosted negotiations between Hamas and Fatah in April, have discouraged them.
Wang Yi, the Foreign Minister, said after signing this statement that reconciliation is an internal matter of Palestinian factions, but it cannot be achieved without international community support.
For China, what was signed on July 23 is a diplomatic success anyway because it restarts the mediation role in the Middle East that Beijing has long desired. This engagement began at a time when China had already started to play a more active role in international politics. Last year, Beijing mediated an agreement between Iran and Saudi Arabia, leading to the revival of diplomatic relations between the two countries for the first time since 2016. Even before that, in December 2022, President Xi Jinping chaired the China-Gulf Cooperation Council summit in Riyadh, resulting in several trade agreements being signed.
But what is important is that China’s leader, through these mediations, promotes a new and alternative global order and repeatedly criticizes the hegemony failures of the United States.
Another important signal from the same perspective is the two-day visit of Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba to Beijing for talks on China’s role in achieving peace.
Kuleba is the first senior Ukrainian official to travel to China since the Russian attack on Ukraine in February 2022.
China’s goal is to organize a new peace conference recognized by both parties.
Zelensky recently announced his intention to hold another summit by November and asked for Russian representatives to participate.
The acknowledgment of the deep divide between Hamas and Fatah, where Fatah officially recognized Israel in 1993 when it held the majority, underscores the fact that efforts to bring closer the two main Palestinian political factions have been ongoing for over a decade. The two important meetings in Cairo 2011 and Al-Jazeera 2022 never led to significant and definitive changes.
Therefore, the joint statement in Beijing, without raising high hopes, shows another step forward in a longer process.
Today, Hamas is more eager for unity than Fatah for two reasons. The first reason is to break out of international isolation and demonstrate diplomatic activity while maintaining their anti-Western stance. The latest meeting was held in Moscow at the end of February and then in Beijing in April, ensuring their role in managing the Gaza Strip and the western coast in the post-war period.
Hamas predicts a catastrophic scenario to convince Fatah to unite and set aside division and discord, in which Israel will attack the western coast after Gaza.
From this perspective, the recent resolution by the UN rejecting the Palestinian constitutional law definitely does not help in fostering unity between the two factions.
Persian
مشاهده این مقاله به زبان فارسی
