BEIJING — Various Palestinian factions including rivals Hamas and Fatah agreed to end their divisions and form a national unity government during negotiations in China that ended Tuesday, according to Chinese state media.
The Beijing Declaration was signed at the closing ceremony of a reconciliation dialogue among the factions held in China’s capital from July 21-23, state broadcaster CCTV said.
Senior Hamas official Hussam Badran said the most important point of the Beijing Declaration was to form a Palestinian national unity government to manage the affairs of Palestinians.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said his goal is to destroy the Iran-backed Hamas group and opposes it having any role in a post war Gaza administration.
A total of 14 Palestinian factions including the leaders of Fatah and Hamas also met with the media, with China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi present, CGTN said in a social media post.
The agreement marks a diplomatic coup for Beijing and its growing influence in the Middle East, after it brokered a breakthrough peace deal between longstanding regional foes Saudi Arabia and Iran last year.
Badran praised China in a statement for its significant effort to host the talks and reach such a declaration.
“This declaration comes at an important time as our people are facing a genocidal war, especially in the Gaza Strip,” the statement quoted Badran as saying.
He said the agreement was an “additional positive step towards achieving Palestinian national unity”.
Badran said a national unity government would manage the affairs of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, oversee reconstruction, and prepare conditions for elections. This was the position of Hamas, which it called for and proposed since the first weeks of the battle.
“This creates a formidable barrier against all regional and international interventions that seek to impose realities against our people’s interests in managing Palestinian affairs post-war,” said Badran.
Rival factions Hamas and Fatah first met in Beijing in April to discuss reconciliation efforts to end around 17 years of disputes, the first time a Hamas delegation was publicly known to have visited China since the war in Gaza began.
The long-feuding Palestinian factions previously failed to heal their political disputes after Hamas fighters expelled Fatah from Gaza in a short war in 2007.
Chinese officials have ramped up advocacy for the Palestinians in international forums in recent months, calling for a larger-scale Israeli-Palestinian peace conference and a specific timetable to implement a two-state solution.
