China Says Middle East Conflict Too Complex for Just U.S.
By Bloomberg News - Jun 19, 2013
The Middle East’s challenges are too complicated for the U.S. to address alone, a top Chinese envoy said today, as the government seeks greater influence in a region that’s the source of 50 percent of its oil imports.
China’s new leadership is paying great attention to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Wu Sike, China’s special envoy for the Middle East, told the official Xinhua News Agency in comments reported yesterday. He spoke as China hosted United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, who is scheduled to meet President Xi Jinping today.
“The Middle East problems are too complex to be solved single-handedly, including by a superpower like America taking the leading role,” Wu said. “It’s not that the U.S. doesn’t want to solve it, it’s that they can’t solve it.”
Since becoming president in March, Xi has taken steps to bolster China’s role in promoting peace between Israel and the Palestinians, including hosting visits by the two sides’ leaders and proposing a plan to resolve the conflict. The Middle East may feature more prominently in China’s pursuit of natural resources amid forecasts the country will overtake the U.S. as the world’s top crude importer in 2014.
Since taking his post earlier this year, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has pushed to restart peace talks deadlocked for almost three years. Xi’s proposal, announced last month, called for a halt to settlement activities, an end to violence against civilians and lifting the blockade of the Gaza Strip. He called for an independent Palestinian state on the basis of 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital.
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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-06-19/china-envoy-says-middle-east-conflict-too-complex-for-u-s-alone.html
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