China Will Host Senior Officials of Hamas and Fatah, Longtime Adversaries

[Pelican Press 0]

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China Will Host Senior Officials of ****** and ******, Longtime Adversaries

China will host senior officials from ****** and ****** for a meeting next week in an effort to bridge gaps between the rival ************ factions that have long competed for power in Gaza and the West Bank, according to officials in both parties.

With ******* and ****** seemingly making progress on a cease-***** deal in the Gaza Strip, discussions of plans for the enclave’s future have taken on greater urgency. Having ****** and ****** open to working together is seen by many experts as crucial to rebuilding Gaza after the war.

Previous attempts to mediate between the two groups — including a meeting in Beijing in April — have ******* to produce tangible results. Plans for the meeting next week, however, signaled that China was not giving up on its longstanding attempts to present itself as a peace broker.

Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of ******, will lead the group’s delegation to Beijing, according to Mousa Abu Marzouk, a senior ****** official. ****** will dispatch three officials, including Mahmoud al-Aloul, the deputy chairman of the party, to the ******** capital, according to Azzam al-Ahmad, a member of the ****** Central Committee.

He said that China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, would meet with the ************ factions on July 21 and again on July 23 — though the two groups will meet on their own in between. China’s Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“We’re always optimistic, but we say that with caution,” Mr. Ahmad said in a phone call.

****** and ****** have a fraught history and have been at loggerheads for years, each trying to present itself as the legitimate leader of the ************ people and wary that the other will undermine its power.

Those differences were on display over the weekend after ******* launched an airstrike on southern Gaza that targeted Muhammad Deif, the leader of ******’s military wing, and ******* dozens of people.

The office of Mahmoud Abbas, president of the ******-dominated ************ Authority, said ******* and the ******* States bore full responsibility for “the terrible massacre,” but suggested that ****** militants had provided ******* with a pretext to ******* ************ civilians by embedding among them. ****** later responded by accusing Mr. Abbas’s office of “exempting” ******* from responsibility for its actions.

U.S. officials have suggested that the ************ Authority should play a central role in governing a postwar Gaza — though that would most likely require approval from ******. And a growing number of Palestinians have argued that ****** and ****** need to find common ground in order to advance the reconstruction of Gaza when the current war ends — even though many are pessimistic about the prospect.

“There’s still a major divide between ****** and ******, but there’s an absolute necessity that they achieve a national consensus for the administration of Gaza,” said Ibrahim Dalalsha, director of the Horizon Center, a ************ political research group. “In the absence of that, there will be a huge tragedy.”

****** officials have expressed willingness to give up civilian control of Gaza, handing responsibility for rebuilding the enclave to a government of independents — although it has ruled out dismantling its military wing.

******* Nations officials have estimated that rebuilding Gaza will cost tens of billions of dollars. Many countries have designated ****** as a ********** organization, restricting their ability to work with any institutions linked to the group in Gaza. The establishment of an independent government in Gaza without formal ties to ****** could make it easier for the ******* States, ********* nations and international organizations to participate in rebuilding the territory.

For China, hosting the meeting between ****** and ****** will serve as yet another opportunity to cast itself as a mediator on the global stage.

China has worked to expand its ties and influence in the Middle East in recent years, most notably helping to broker the diplomatic rapprochement between Saudi Arabia and Iran last year. It has also deepened its investments in the region, and pledged to expand cooperation with countries there in

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, where the ******* States has sought to isolate China.

On ******** and ************ affairs, in particular, Beijing has tried to portray itself as a peace broker, albeit more in rhetoric than in reality.

China has long had friendly ties with ************ leaders. Mr. Abbas has visited China five times during his nearly two decades as president of the authority, most recently last June, before ******’s surprise Oct. 7 ******* on *******. ******** state media was especially vocal then about Beijing’s potential role as a mediator, highlighting a proposal for a two-state solution by Xi Jinping, the ******** leader.

For ******, the coming meeting could serve as another chance to deepen relations with a country that has been far less critical of its actions than Western nations have.

“China is a powerful country and we want to strengthen our ties with it,” Mr. Abu Marzouk said in an interview in Doha. “We’re a people under occupation and we strive for relations with everyone.”

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