Chinese FM tells Israeli, PA counterparts Beijing’s ready to facilitate peace talks

BEIJING — China’s foreign minister told his Israeli and Palestinian counterparts that his country is ready to help facilitate peace talks, state media Xinhua reported Tuesday.

The separate phone calls between Foreign Minister Qin Gang and the top diplomats of Israel and the Palestinian Authority came amid recent moves by Beijing to position itself as a regional mediator.

Qin encouraged “steps to resume peace talks,” and said that “China is ready to provide convenience for this,” in a Monday phone call with Foreign Minister Eli Cohen, Xinhua reported in a summarization.

For its part, Cohen’s office said he relayed to his Chinese counterpart “the danger [Israel] sees in the Iranian nuclear program — a danger that is shared by many countries in the region, including countries that have diplomatic relations with Iran.”

Qin told Palestinian foreign minister Riyad Al-Maliki that Beijing supports the resumption of talks as soon as possible, according to a Xinhua summary.

In both calls, Qin emphasized China’s push for peace talks on the basis of implementing a “two-state solution,” Xinhua said.

China has been on a recent diplomatic offensive, brokering the restoration of ties in March between Iran and Saudi Arabia — rivals in a region where the United States for decades has been the main diplomatic powerbroker.

Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations have been stalled since 2014.