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China Calls for Peace Conference in the Middle East

A group photo of the leaders participating in the Arab-Chinese Cooperation Forum (Egyptian Presidency)
A group photo of the leaders participating in the Arab-Chinese Cooperation Forum (Egyptian Presidency)
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China Calls for Peace Conference in the Middle East

A group photo of the leaders participating in the Arab-Chinese Cooperation Forum (Egyptian Presidency)
A group photo of the leaders participating in the Arab-Chinese Cooperation Forum (Egyptian Presidency)

China called for a peace conference to end the war in Gaza, stressing its readiness to work with Arab countries to establish the “five frameworks of cooperation”.
The China-Arab States Cooperation Forum kicked off on Thursday in Beijing. The event represents a platform for strengthening bilateral relations between Arab countries and China, and deepening mutual understanding and strategic cooperation between the two sides.
Addressing the opening session, Chinese President Xi-Jinping said that his country will host the second edition of the China-Arab Summit in 2026, describing it as another “milestone” in the course of Chinese-Arab relations.
He added that China will work with the Arab side to consolidate cooperation in key economic fields such as oil and gas, trade and infrastructure, as well as in new areas such as artificial intelligence, investment, finance and renewable energy.
During the first edition of the China-Arab Summit in Riyadh in December 2022, Xi-Jinping put forward the “Eight Joint Actions” for practical cooperation. The five frameworks include a more dynamic basis for innovation, an expanded framework for investment and financial cooperation, a multifaceted structure for energy cooperation, a more balanced framework for mutually beneficial economic and trade relations, and a broader space for people-to-people exchanges.
With regard to the Middle East, the Chinese President said that the Palestinian-Israeli conflict “has escalated strongly and caused enormous suffering to the Palestinian people,” stressing “the necessity of stopping the war in the Gaza Strip.”
He added that the “war must not continue indefinitely, justice must not be absent forever, and commitment to the two-state solution must not sway according to whims.”
Addressing the session, Xi expressed his support for a “broad-based” peace conference to resolve the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.
In a statement, Arab countries and China said that the forum contributed to strengthening Arab-Chinese relations in various political, economic, social, media and development fields.
UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan stressed the importance of finding a horizon for just and comprehensive peace in the Middle East region based on the two-state solution.
Meanwhile, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi urged the international community to carry out its moral and legal responsibilities to “stop the brutal Israeli war.” He called for action without delay to “immediately and sustainably deliver humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip to put an end to the Israeli siege.”
In his speech, Secretary-General of the Arab League Ahmed Aboul Gheit emphasized commitment to advancing relations between Arab countries and China towards a better future.
For his part, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan underlined the need for an immediate and permanent ceasefire, while ensuring adequate and continuous entry of aid, and finding a reliable and irreversible path to a two-state solution.

 

 

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Israeli Officials Demand the Right to Strike Hezbollah under Any Ceasefire Deal for Lebanon

An Israeli fighter jet flies over the northern border with Lebanon on 20 November 2024. (EPA)
An Israeli fighter jet flies over the northern border with Lebanon on 20 November 2024. (EPA)
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Israeli Officials Demand the Right to Strike Hezbollah under Any Ceasefire Deal for Lebanon

An Israeli fighter jet flies over the northern border with Lebanon on 20 November 2024. (EPA)
An Israeli fighter jet flies over the northern border with Lebanon on 20 November 2024. (EPA)

Israeli officials demanded Wednesday the freedom to strike Lebanon's Hezbollah as part of any ceasefire deal, raising a potential complication as a top US envoy was in the region attempting to clinch an agreement.

The development came as an airstrike hit the historic Syrian town of Palmyra, killing 36 people, according to Syrian state-run media, which blamed the attack on Israel. The Israeli military declined to comment.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz and Foreign Minister Gideon Saar each said Israel sought to reserve the right to respond to any violations by Hezbollah under an emerging proposal, which would push the group’s fighters and Israeli ground forces out of a UN buffer zone in southern Lebanon.

There have been signs of progress on the ceasefire deal, with Hezbollah’s allies in the Lebanese government saying the militant group had responded positively to the proposal.

“In any agreement we will reach, we will have to maintain our freedom to act if there will be violations,” Saar told dozens of foreign ambassadors in Jerusalem. “We will have to be able to act in time, before the problem will grow.”

Katz, in a meeting with intelligence corps officers, said “the condition for any political settlement in Lebanon” was the right for the Israeli military “to act and protect the citizens of Israel from Hezbollah.”

Amos Hochstein, the Biden administration’s point man on Israel and Lebanon, has been working in recent days to push the sides toward agreement. He has been meeting this week with officials in Lebanon and said Wednesday he would travel to Israel in an attempt to “try to bring this to a close if we can.”

On Tuesday, Hochstein said an agreement to end the Israel-Hezbollah war is “within our grasp.”

The emerging ceasefire deal would push Hezbollah and Israel out of southern Lebanon Hezbollah began firing into Israel on Oct. 8, 2023, in solidarity with Hamas after its attack on southern Israel that sparked the war in the Gaza Strip. Israel has been responding with strikes in Lebanon, and dramatically escalated its bombardment in late September by launching a ground invasion just inside the border.

In the more than a year of exchanges, more than 3,500 people have been killed in Lebanon, most in the past month, the Health Ministry reported, and over 1 million people have been displaced. It's unknown how many of the dead were Hezbollah fighters.

In Israel, more than 70 people have been killed by Hezbollah fire, and tens of thousands have fled their homes.

Hochstein’s proposal is based on UN resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel. The resolution stipulates that only the Lebanese army and UN peacekeepers should operate in southern Lebanon.

Still, after 2006, Hezbollah never fully ended its presence in the south. Lebanon accuses Israel of also violating the resolution by maintaining hold of a small, disputed border area and conducting frequent military flights over Lebanon.

Israel says that since then, Hezbollah built up a military infrastructure throughout villages and towns in southern Lebanon.

The proposal currently being discussed would include an implementation plan and a monitoring system to ensure each side follows its obligations to fully withdraw from the south. That could involve the US and France, but details are still unclear.

There’s been progress, but the deal isn’t done yet The Israeli ministers did not outline what Israel’s demand to maintain freedom of operation would entail. Since the 2006 war, Israel has struck Hezbollah on the few occasions when border violence did flare up, but any larger scale response could push the region back into turmoil.

It is also unlikely that Lebanon would agree to a deal that permits Israeli violations of its sovereignty.

And although the proposal attempts to nail down an implementation mechanism, the failure to fully implement the UN resolution after the 2006 war could point to the difficulties in getting the sides to uphold a sustainable ceasefire that would bring long-term quiet.

Israel has continued to pound Hezbollah throughout the ceasefire attempts, and rockets have continued to rain down on northern Israel. Any perceived escalation could derail the talks.

Even if a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah is reached, the war in Gaza grinds on into its 14th month.

Israel is still battling Hamas there, sending the death toll soaring to nearly 44,000 dead — over half of them women and children, according to local health officials, who do not distinguish between civilians and combatants in their count.

While Hezbollah throughout the war in Gaza said it wouldn’t stop firing at Israel until the fighting in the Palestinian territory ends, that condition was dropped in September after Israel intensified its offensive on the group, killing its top leadership and degrading its military capabilities.

That leaves Gaza waiting for a ceasefire of its own, as people there continue to endure a humanitarian crisis that has displaced much of the territory’s 2.3 million people and prompted widespread hunger, especially in the north, where the UN says virtually no food or humanitarian aid has been delivered to for more than 40 days because of the Israeli military’s siege there.