Chinese official media reported that several Palestinian factions, including Hamas and Fatah, agreed to end the division between them and form a national unity government, during a dialogue in China that concluded on Tuesday.
China Central Television reported that the Beijing Declaration was signed at the closing ceremony of a reconciliation dialogue between the factions hosted by Beijing from July 21 to 23.
Hossam Badran, a member of the Hamas political bureau, said that the most important point in the Beijing declaration is the formation of a Palestinian national unity government to manage the affairs of the Palestinians.
The Chinese Global Television Network (CGTN) reported in a post on social media that a total of 14 Palestinian factions, including leaders of the Fatah and Hamas movements, also met with media representatives in the presence of Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.
The agreement represents a diplomatic coup for Beijing and its growing influence in the Middle East, after it brokered a historic agreement between Saudi Arabia and Iran last year.
In a statement, Badran expressed his appreciation for the great efforts made by China to host the dialogue and reach such a declaration.
The statement quoted Badran as saying, "This announcement comes at an important time as our people are exposed to a war of extermination, especially in the Gaza Strip."
He said, "Beijing's announcement is an additional positive step on the path to achieving Palestinian national unity."
He pointed out that "the most important points of agreement were to form a Palestinian national consensus government that would manage the affairs of our people in Gaza and the West Bank, supervise reconstruction, and prepare the conditions for elections. This was the position of Hamas that it called for and presented from the first weeks of the battle."
He stressed that "this places an impenetrable barrier to all regional and international interventions that seek to impose facts against the interests of our people in managing the Palestinian issue after the war."
Last April, the Hamas and Fatah movements met for the first time in Beijing to discuss reconciliation efforts to end about 17 years of disputes. This was the first time it was announced that a Hamas delegation had visited China since the start of the war in Gaza.
The long-warring Palestinian factions were unable to resolve their political differences after Hamas fighters expelled the Fatah movement from Gaza in a short-lived war in 2007.
Chinese officials have intensified their efforts to defend the Palestinians in international forums in the past few months, calling for a broader Israeli-Palestinian peace conference and setting a specific timetable for implementing the two-state solution.
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