BEIJING, March 7, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - China's top diplomat on Thursday said
Beijing supports "full" United Nations membership of a Palestinian state.

"We support Palestine becoming a formal member of the United Nations,"
foreign minister Wang Yi told journalists at a press conference.

"The catastrophe in Gaza once again reminded the world that the fact that the
Palestinian territories have been occupied for a long time can no longer be
ignored," Wang said.

"The long-cherished wish of the Palestinian people to establish an
independent country can no longer be evaded, and the historical injustice
suffered by the Palestinian people cannot continue for generations without
being corrected," he added.

Beijing has been calling for an immediate ceasefire since the start of the
current Israel-Hamas war in October last year.

China has historically been sympathetic to the Palestinian cause and
supportive of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

And President Xi Jinping has called for an "international peace conference"
to resolve the fighting.