China urges efforts to curb Syria’s descent into division and a refugee crisis

Foreign Minister Wang Yi says Palestinian issue must not be ignored and ‘Middle East should not remain a victim of great power rivalries’

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Syria has been of low strategic and economic interest to China, say analysts who expect Beijing will not seek a role in shaping the country post-Assad. Photo: Reuters

Published: 7:46pm, 13 Dec 2024Updated: 8:47pm, 13 Dec 2024

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has called for international efforts to prevent Syria from descending into further division and another refugee crisis, responding on Friday for the first time to the sudden collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s Beijing-friendly regime last week.

Wang also called for efforts to maintain the regional reconciliation brought by the resumption of diplomatic relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran in a peace deal brokered by Beijing last year.

“The international community should … help the region to improve the humanitarian situation and alleviate the suffering of the people of the Middle East, in particular by preventing the resurgence of the refugee crisis in Syria,” Wang told his Egyptian counterpart, Badr Abdel Aaty, in Beijing on Friday.

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Taking aim at the United States and its allies, Wang also warned against sidelining the ongoing Palestinian issue, saying “the Middle East should not remain a victim of great power rivalries”.

Wang’s response came as Assad’s regime suddenly collapsed on Sunday after a decade-long civil war.

Beijing, a long-term supporter of Assad, has closely monitored the ramifications of its overall Middle-East strategy and is expected to carefully manage relations with the new Syrian government, according to experts.

Syria had not been not a central pillar of China’s Middle East strategy, Jesse Marks, a non-resident fellow with the Stimson Centre’s China programme and a former US defence adviser, said, adding that Assad’s regime was risky for Beijing’s Middle East role.