Chinese envoy urges safeguarding legitimate rights of Palestinian people

A Chinese envoy on Tuesday urged the international community to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of the Palestinian people, while upholding the two-state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli issue.

"Safeguarding the legitimate rights and interests of the Palestinian people is the common responsibility of the international community," Zhang Jun, China's permanent representative to the United Nations, told the Security Council meeting on the situation in the Middle East.

"The international community should uphold multilateralism, promote dialogue and negotiation, and peacefully resolve the Palestinian issue through political consultation," he said.

"Violence or threat of force will not help solve the problem. All the relevant parties should move towards each other, actively promote internal reconciliation in Palestine, immediately stop inflammatory words and actions and mutual accusations, avoid unilateral measures that undermine trust so as to create favorable conditions for resuming dialogue," said the envoy.

Zhang said that efforts should be made to promote a comprehensive, just and lasting solution to the Palestinian issue based on existing international consensus.

"The two-state solution is the only correct way to solve the Palestinian-Israeli issue. The relevant UN resolutions, the principle of land-for-peace, and the Arab Peace Initiative are fundamental principles to be followed in this regard," said the ambassador.

"The international community should proceed on this basis to promote the early resumption of peace talks between the two sides with a view to establishing a fully sovereign Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital."