Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi to visit US to discuss Israel-Hamas war

Washington/Beijing, Oct 24

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi will embark on a four-day visit to the US during which he will meet Secretary of State Antony Blinken and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and discuss the raging Israel-Hamas conflict, according to sources in Washington.

Wang's visit will begin on Thursday through October 29, the BBC reported.

During the visit, the US officials will push Beijing “to take a more constructive approach” on the “situations” in Israel and Ukraine, the sources said.

It was not immediately known if the top Chinese diplomat will meet President Joe Biden.

The development comes after Wang spoke to his Israeli counterpart Eli Cohen on Monday during which the Chinese official said that “all countries have the right to self-defence, but they should abide by international humanitarian law”, reports CNN.

Wang had previously accused Israel of going “beyond the scope of self-defence”.

Wang told Cohen that "the current top priority is to prevent tensions from escalating further and leading to a more serious humanitarian disaster”, according to a readout posted by China’s Foreign Ministry on Tuesday.

In the call, Wang said the “two-state solution” is the international community’s consensus and urged both the Israelis and the Palestinians to resume peace talks for “peaceful coexistence”.

“China has no selfish interests on the Palestinian issue. We sincerely hope that the Palestinian issue can be fairly and comprehensively solved on the basis of the ‘two-state solution’,” CNN quoted the Chinese Foreign Minister as saying.

Wang also spoke to Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Malki, and called for an “effective international peace conference as soon as possible” and reiterated China’s support for a two-state solution, the BBC reported.

His calls come amid a flurry of diplomacy by Chinese officials during the ongoing conflict.

Beijing sent its Middle East envoy Zhai Jun to the region earlier this week in an attempt to broker talks.

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