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Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told the UN Security Council that the latest conflict between Israel and Hamas showed the need for a Palestinian state alongside Israel.
“We should revitalize the political prospects of the two-state solution,” Wang said, describing the lack of a Palestinian state as “the crux of the repeated turbulence in the Palestinian-Israeli situation.”
China called Wednesday’s meeting as it currently holds the Security Council’s rotating presidency of the Security Council.
Like UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who addressed the session first, Wang called for the brokering of a “comprehensive and lasting cease-fire with the greatest urgency.”
Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister, Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud — standing with counterparts from Egypt, Qatar, Jordan, Turkey, Indonesia and Malaysia — told reporters that the aid that had entered the Gaza Strip during the few days of truce was “far less than needed.”
“The danger is that if … this truce expires, we will return to the killing at the scale that we have seen, which is unbearable,” Prince Faisal said. “We are here to make a clear statement that a truce is not enough. What is needed is a cease-fire.”
Meanwhile, Israeli UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan told the session that support for a lasting cease-fire was tantamount to support for Hamas retaining control of Gaza, which the militant, Islamist group has ruled since 2007.
“Anyone who supports a cease-fire basically supports Hamas’ continued reign of terror in Gaza. Hamas is a genocidal terror organization — they don’t hide it — not a reliable partner for peace,” Erdan said.
Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki said the truce must become a “permanent cease-fire” and that “the massacres cannot be allowed to resume.”
US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield said that as Israel “exercises its rights to safeguard its people from acts of terror,” the US had urged it to “take every possible measure” to prevent or limit civilian casualties.
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