ISTANBUL

China on Wednesday rebuffed US President Donald Trump’s plans to “take over” the Gaza Strip, saying it opposes forced displacement of Palestinians to neighboring countries.

Beijing has “all along believed that ‘the Palestinians governing Palestine’ is the fundamental principle of post-conflict governance of Gaza,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian told reporters in response to a question by Anadolu.

“We oppose the forced displacement of the people in Gaza,” Lin stressed.

Beijing, he added, “hopes that relevant parties will take the opportunity of the ceasefire and post-conflict governance in Gaza to bring the Palestinian question back to the right track of a political settlement based on the two-State solution, so as to realize lasting peace in the Middle East,” according to an English transcript of Lin’s news conference released by the ministry.

The statement from Beijing came after Trump announced a plan for the US to “take over” the Gaza Strip and “develop it after relocating Palestinians to neighboring countries.”

Trump made the remarks in a joint news conference in Washington with visiting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

"The US will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it too," he said. "We're going to develop it, create thousands and thousands of jobs, and it'll be something that the entire Middle East can be very proud of."

Trump gave no details on how the US would carry out the resettlement plan.

China’s Foreign Ministry, in contrast, said it hopes "all relevant parties will take the ceasefire in Gaza and post-war governance as an opportunity to push the Palestinian issue back onto the correct track of political resolution based on the 'two-state solution,' in order to achieve lasting peace in the Middle East.”

Separately, Afghanistan called Trump’s statement a “blatant violation of international law.”

“Gaza is an integral part of Palestinian territory, and no one else holds the authority to determine the fate of its people,” according to the Foreign Ministry.

The interim administration led by the Taliban urged “influential nations advocating for justice worldwide to adopt a unified, pragmatic and timely position against such conspiracy.”