Foes for centuries, Russia and its “dear friend” China have begun to find common ground with the Middle East countries that have voiced support for Palestine amid the Israel-Hamas war.
The counter-offensive by Israel has presented an opportunity for both Moscow and Beijing to come up as the champs of the developing world as Washington has fairly and squarely backed its ally Tel Aviv.
Though China has repeatedly called for restraint and a ceasefire, it has also strongly denounced Israel over its bombardment of the besieged Palestinian enclave.
“Israel’s actions have gone beyond the scope of self-defence,” Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said this week, calling on it to stop its “collective punishment” of Gaza residents, Chinese state media reported.
Russia, amid the conflict, has expressed sympathy for the Palestinians while condemning the United States stating that the upsurge of violence and tensions between Israel and Gaza showed the failure of the United States’ Middle-East policy.
Russian President Vladimir Putin also stated that Washington sought to monopolise the international efforts aimed at forging peace in the region, further condemning the US for not seeking compromises acceptable to both sides.
“I think that many people will agree with me that this is a vivid example of the failure of United States policy in the Middle East,” Putin had told Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani last week.
“The US tried to monopolise the solution (of the crisis between Israel and Palestinians), but, unfortunately, was not concerned with finding compromises acceptable to both sides, but, on the contrary, promoted its own ideas about how it should be done and put both sides under pressure. That’s both sides, at one or another,” he said.
Both Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping have strived to exacerbate links to the global south, witnessing economic prospects and conceivably a way to negate the diplomatic influence of the United States and its allies. This strategy was on its full display earlier this week as China hosted a summit for Xi’s Belt and Road Initiative, which has loaned hundreds of billions of dollars for infrastructure projects across the Middle East, Africa, Latin America and Asia.
Putin attended and met Xi for three hours of talks that included “an in-depth exchange of views on the Palestinian-Israeli situation”, China said.
“China and Russia still see (the crisis) more in terms of the United States than in terms of either Palestine or Israel,” said Jon Alterman, director of the Middle East Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
“If the United States can effectively rally the world, it’s bad for them. If the US and its allies grow increasingly isolated, they see that as good for them.”
China and Russia’s support for Palestine
The way both Moscow and Beijing operate in the Middle East has a lot in common. Russia has been a staunch critic of the United States, however, China has mainly opted to bypass denouncing the US.
This year, China signalled its growing influence in the Middle East when it announced a deal on the restoration of ties between Saudi Arabia and Iran.
On the other hand, Russia too has been enhancing its relationship with Iran via its move to back Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and supplies of Iranian drones.
Both Mosco and Beijing have strongly voiced support for Palestinians and are critical of what they say is the stigmatisation of them by the United States.
“There’s clearly a shared interest in emphasizing the negative role of the US in the conflict,” news agency Reuters quoted Jean-Loup Samaan, senior research fellow at the Middle East Institute of the National University of Singapore as saying.
“And that fits within their broader narrative on the need to build an alternative world order to the US”.
Earlier, Putin, accusing the West of not taking into consideration the fundamental interests of the Palestinians, had stated that it was necessary to “implement the decisions of the UN Security Council on the creation of an independent sovereign Palestinian state.”
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov also echoed the same sentiment saying that the creation of a Palestinian state was the “most reliable” solution for peace in Israel.
“Creation of a Palestinian state that would live side by side with Israel.. is the most reliable path to solve (the conflict). We cannot agree with those who say that security can only be ensured through a fight with terrorism,” he said.
Meanwhile, Chinese media covered the Hamas assault and since then has been carrying reports containing images of Palestinians suffering, with some even citing Palestinian sources as saying Israel was responsible for the violence.
“None of the reality that shocked much of the world on October 7 is in Chinese news. Instead, the news features Israeli bombing of Gaza without explaining that the target is only Hamas infrastructure,” Reuters quoted Carice Witte, director of the SIGNAL Group, a Sino-Israel relations think tank based in Tel Aviv as saying.
(With inputs from agencies)
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