China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi told the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday that Gaza and the West Bank are not a bargaining chip and are the homeland of the Palestinian people.
Wang said it was vital to uphold the two-state solution. U.S. President Donald Trump caused outrage earlier this month when he proposed that the U.S. should take over the Gaza Strip and Palestinians should be displaced to other countries.
"Gaza and the West Bank are the homeland of the Palestinian people, not a bargaining chip in political trade-offs. The Palestinians governing Palestine is an important principle that must be followed in the post-conflict governance of Gaza," he said.
Wang chaired a meeting of the 15-member Security Council on multilateralism because China is president for February.
Speaking broadly, he said countries "cannot just sit by and watch multilateral institutions become dysfunctional and ineffective due to their own failure to cooperate," urging the Security Council to "rise above narrow-minded, geopolitical considerations" to champion solidarity and cooperation.
"Any act of bullying, trickery or extortion is a flagrant violation of the basic norms of international relations. Any unilateral sanction that circumvents Security Council authorization lacks legal basis, defies justification and contradicts common sense," said Wang, without elaborating.
Trump's outrageous proposal drew global condemnation.
Palestinians have widely said they will not leave their homeland, while Egypt and Jordan – backed by Saudi Arabia - have refused Trump’s calls for them to take in Gaza’s population.
Rights groups have widely said the plan amounts to forced expulsion, a potential war crime. European countries have also primarily denounced Trump’s plan. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has praised the idea and says Israel is preparing to implement it.
Egypt is working on a plan to rebuild Gaza without displacing Palestinians, countering Trump's proposal to depopulate the area for U.S. control.
