As fears grow of a wider conflict in the Middle East, the war between Israel and Hamas appears to be deepening the divide between the U.S. and its allies on one side and China and its partner Russia on the other.
The divide has been apparent this week at the United Nations Security Council, where efforts to pass a resolution in response to the conflict were stymied by disagreements among members including the U.S., Russia and China, all of whom wield vetoes.
As of Saturday, the conflict has killed more than 4,000 people in the Gaza Strip and 1,400 people in Israel, with at least 32 Americans, 19 Russians and four Chinese among the casualties.
While President Joe Biden has emphasized U.S. support for Israel, condemning Hamas’s brutal Oct. 7 attack and backing “restrained” retaliation by Israeli forces, Presidents Xi Jinping of China and Vladimir Putin of Russia have taken a different approach.
In a broadly similar response, the two leaders have condemned attacks on civilians, urged a cease-fire and offered to mediate, while failing to explicitly condemn Hamas.
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Both have said the solution to the conflict lies in the establishment of an independent Palestinian state, and in a meeting Thursday, China and Russia reaffirmed their shared position on the issue and said they were closely coordinating their Middle East policy.
“The fundamental reason the Palestinian-Israeli conflict has reached its current state is that the legitimate national rights of the Palestinian people have not been protected,” China’s Middle East envoy Zhai Jun told his Russian counterpart, Mikhail Bogdanov, in Qatar, his first stop on a trip to the region.
“They’re trying to keep their relationships stable,” Robert Sutter, a professor of international affairs at George Washington…
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