China urges Palestine two-state solution

Palestinians must be allowed to build an independent state, China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Thursday after meeting Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki, who pushed Beijing to do more in the Middle East peace process. Chinese envoys occasionally visit Israel and the Palestinian Territories, though China has traditionally played little role in Middle East conflicts or diplomacy, despite its reliance on the region for oil, according to Reuters. Wang told a joint press briefing with Maliki that 70 years after a UN resolution was passed on a plan for a Jewish state, Palestinians are still being prevented from having their own independent country. “This is unfair. This kind of historical injustice must be corrected. It cannot continue,” Wang said. It was time to overcome inertia and restart Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, he said. Maliki said Palestinians appreciated and welcomed China’s efforts to facilitate peace.