JERUSALEM, May 18: Israel summoned China’s ambassador to Tel Aviv on Thursday to protest an invitation for the Hamas-led Palestinian government’s foreign minister to attend a conference in Beijing this month.
“A strong protest was handed to the Chinese ambassador,” Chen Yonglong, after he was asked to visit the offices of the foreign ministry over the invitation to Mahmud al Zahar, a ministry spokesman said.
Such an invitation ‘gives legitimacy to the terrorist government of Hamas and contradicts the demands of the international community and will harm bilateral relations between China and Israel’, Mark Regev said.—AFP
