Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: In March 2023, China surprised the West by brokering a peace deal between Saudi Arabia and Iran, marking Beijing’s entry into the world’s hottest geopolitical hotspot it thought America had abandoned.
But, the Hamas invasion of Israel on October 7 brought the USA back into the murky waters of the Middle East. With the near-destruction of the Gaza Strip and nearly 14,000 deaths later, the Middle East has turned to the United Nations Security Council (NSC)’s P-5 nations, and China in particular, to douse fires in the medieval inferno.
Forty-five days after the war broke out, the Muslim leaders are visiting the five veto-holding permanent members of the UNSC– the US, UK, France, Russia, and China–to push Israel into a ceasefire.
With this objective, the leaders of the Middle East have started visiting the P-5 members’ capitals. This development came within days of the fast-changing geopolitical scenario. Recently, the 57-nation Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) conference on the issue almost failed amid internal differences within the Ummah (Brotherhood).
Among the Sunni nations, the Arab faction, led by Saudi Arabia, and the non-Arab bloc led by Turkey had a difference of opinions. Even the Shia Iran, after haranguing Israel and provoking Shia Hezbollah for weeks, quietly left the Sunni Hamas to face the death and destruction unleashed on the Gaza Strip. In other words, the Muslim world failed to put its act together.
The international community must shoulder responsibility to stop Israel’s violations in Gaza, Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan said on Monday during a meeting between China’s foreign minister and ministers from Arab and Islamic countries.
The Saudi foreign minister and his counterparts from Arab and Islamic nations arrived in Beijing on Monday on the first leg of a tour to the permanent member states of the United Nations Security Council to push for an immediate ceasefire and to allow humanitarian aid into the territory, the media reported.
During a meeting with diplomats in Beijing, Prince Faisal called for more international efforts to end the war on Gaza and save lives.
“We are here to send a clear signal: that is we must immediately stop the fighting and the killings, we must immediately deliver humanitarian supplies to Gaza.”
“We aspire to cooperate with China and other countries that understand the seriousness of the situation to end the war,” Prince Faisal added.
He pointed to the dangerous escalations in Gaza that require effective international action to end the violence.
China’s foreign minister Wang Yi said Beijing is willing to work to help “restore peace in the Middle East.”
“Let us work together to quickly cool down the situation in Gaza and restore peace in the Middle East as soon as possible,” Wang told foreign ministers in opening remarks in Beijing.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with his counterparts from Saudi Arabia, Palestine, Egypt, Jordan, and Indonesia in Beijing.
He noted that Beijing was a “good friend and brother of Arab and Muslim countries,” adding it has “always firmly supported the just cause of the Palestinian people to restore their legitimate national rights and interests.”
He called on the international community to take urgent action to stop the “humanitarian disaster” unfolding in Gaza and prevent this tragedy from spreading.
“The situation in Gaza affects all countries around the world, questioning the human sense of right and wrong and humanity’s bottom line,” he said.
Beijing has deepened alliances with non-Western-led multilateral groups such as the BRICS bloc of nations while strengthening ties with countries in the Middle East and the Global South.
On Monday, Wang added China will work to “quell the fighting in Gaza as soon as possible, alleviate the humanitarian crisis, and promote an early, comprehensive, just and lasting settlement of the Palestinian issue.”
The officials holding meetings with China’s Yi on Monday are from Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, Indonesia, Palestine, and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, among others.