The gulf state’s prime minister said he was making the move due to ‘exploitation and abuse of the Qatari role’
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The Chinese and Indonesian foreign ministers called for an immediate and lasting ceasefire in Gaza after a meeting in Jakarta on Thursday, condemning the humanitarian costs of the ongoing war that has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians.
According to the Associated Press (AP) news agency, Indonesia’s minister of foreign affairs Retno Marsudi told reporters that the two countries share the same view about the importance of a ceasefire and of resolving the Palestinian problem through a two-state solution.
“I am sure that China would use its influence to prevent escalation,” Marsudi said, adding that China and Indonesia “would also fully support Palestine’s membership in the UN.”
The AP reports that the meeting took place on the second day of a six-day tour during which Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi will also visit Papua New Guinea and Cambodia.
Wang blamed the US for holding up ceasefire resolutions at the UN. “The conflict in Gaza has lasted for half a year and caused a rare humanitarian tragedy in the 21st century. The UN security council responded to the call of the international community and continued to review the resolution draft on the ceasefire in Gaza, but it was repeatedly vetoed by the US,” Wang told reporters.
The US vetoed a number of proposed security council resolutions because they did not tie a ceasefire directly to the release of Israeli hostages or condemn Hamas’s 7 October attacks, before allowing a resolution to a pass with an abstention in late March.
US officials have argued that the ceasefire and hostage releases are linked, while Russia, China and many other council members favored unconditional calls for a ceasefire.
“This time, the US did not dare to stand in opposition to international morality and chose to abstain. However, the US claimed that this resolution was not binding,” Wang said. “In the eyes of the US, international law seems to be a tool that can be used whenever it finds useful and discarded if it does not want to use it.”
