• Beijing supports efforts for ceasefire and humanitarian corridors
• Sisi and King Abdullah II condemn ‘collective punishment’ of Palestinians

BEIJING: Chinese President Xi Jinping told Egypt’s prime minister on Thursday that their countries should work together to bring “more stability” to the Middle East, as the Israeli aggression on Gaza casts a shadow over the region.

China has repeatedly backed a vague two-state proposal on the decades-long deadlock, but it has historically been sympathetic to the Palestinian cause.

Xi met Egypt’s Mostafa Madbouli in Beijing on Thursday, repeating China’s support for a “two-state solution… to realise the peaceful coexistence of Palestine and Israel”, according to multiple state media outlets.

“China is willing to enhance cooperation with Egypt… and inject more certainty and stability into the region and the world,” Xi was reported as saying.

Beijing was also willing to work with Cairo to “jointly safeguard international fairness and justice as well as the common interests of developing countries”, he said.

China “appreciates the important role played by Egypt in de-escalating the situation and supports Egypt’s efforts to open humanitarian corridors”, Xi told Madbouli.

“It is crucial to prevent the sitituation from expanding or even losing control and causing a serious humanitarian crisis,” Xi said. “The top priority is to cease fire and stop war at an early date,” he added.

And after the United States vetoed a UN Security Council resolution on Wednesday calling for a “humanitarian pause”, Beijing reiterated those calls for a cessation of violence.

“China is deeply disappointed in the United States’ obstruction of the Security Council’s adoption of a draft resolution on the Palestinian issue,” foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said.

Mao called on the Security Council to “play its role in reaching a ceasefire and stopping the war”.

‘Collective punishment’

On Thursday, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Jordan’s King Abdullah II condemned the “collective punishment” of Palestinians in Gaza as they met in Cairo for talks on the Gaza crisis.

Ahead of the meeting, the Jordanian royal court said Sisi and King Abdullah would “discuss means to stop the Israeli aggression on Gaza”.

In separate statements issued later, the Egyptian presidency and the royal court said the two leaders “affirmed their unified position rejecting the policy of collective punishment in the siege, starvation or displacement” of Palestinians.

Sisi and King Abdullah warned of regional spillover. “If the war does not stop”, it would threaten “to plunge the entire region into catastrophe”, according to the Jordanian statement.

The pair had been due to hold talks with US President Joe Biden and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas in Jordan this week, but Jordan cancelled the meeting after a deadly Israeli strike on a Gaza hospital.

Their meeting came on the same day that UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres visited Cairo.

Sisi also discussed “the situation in Gaza” with US Central Command chief Michael Kurilla, his office said on Thursday.

Meanwhile, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan on Thursday discussed the Israeli attacks on Gaza with his Egyptian counterpart Sameh Shoukry, a Turkish Foreign Ministry source said.

The source provided no further information about the call.

Published in Dawn, October 20th, 2023