DHAKA: China’s foreign ministry welcomed on Thursday a unity pact agreed between the Gaza-based Islamist group Hamas and president Mahmoud Abbas’ Palestine Liberation Organisation, saying Beijing hoped this would help peace talks with Israel.
While the United States said it was disappointed by the deal, which it said could make peace efforts difficult, China said it regarded the move positively.
China ‘believes this will be conducive to Palestinian unity, and fundamentally conducive to the establishment of an independent Palestinian state and peaceful coexistance between Israel and Palestine’, foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang told a daily news briefing.
The Palestinian move, after years of internal bickering, envisions a unity government being formed within five weeks and national elections six months later.
BDST: 1758 HRS, APR 24, 2014