Xi Jinping Calls for Immediate Establishment of Palestinian State
Chinese President Xi Jinping told Jordan’s King Abdullah that the Palestinian issue is the core issue of the Middle East, and urged the swift establishment of a sovereign Palestinian state. He made the remarks during a meeting in Beijing, according to Chinese state radio. Xi called for a political solution and the resumption of peace negotiations between Palestine and Israel. He also called for the immediate realisation of the establishment of Palestine as an independent state, as stated in the official summary of the meeting broadcast by state radio.
Earlier, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday vowed to prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state in Gaza or the occupied West Bank as long as he remains in office, Anadolu reported. The statement was made in response to Mansour Abbas, leader of the United Arab List party, who said that Palestine already exists as a state and is recognised by most of the world. Abbas urged Israel and the United States to also recognise Palestine.
As long as I serve as prime minister, there will be no Palestinian state controlled by Iran, neither in Gaza nor in Judea and Samaria, Netanyahu said, using the biblical term for the occupied territory. Speaking at his party’s general conference in the Arab city of Tayibe on Saturday, Abbas said his party is seeking peace between Israel and Palestine. The Palestinian state exists, and the world recognises it, Abbas said, calling on Washington and Tel Aviv to also recognise it.
Netanyahu’s remarks come ahead of the Knesset elections scheduled for 27 October, in which polls show that his Likud party and its coalition partners are falling short of the 61-seat threshold needed to form a government. Likud, which currently holds 32 seats, has seen a sharp decline in recent surveys; a poll on Friday predicted the party would win only 20 seats. A Channel 13 poll published on 19 August projected a combined 51 seats for Netanyahu’s Likud party and its far-right and ultra-Orthodox allies, still 10 seats short of a parliamentary majority.