Chinese Vice Premier Hui Liangyu,special envoy of Chinese President Hu Jintao, attended the funeral of late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in the Egyptian capital on Friday.

    During the event, Hui, on behalf of President Hu, the Chinese government and the Chinese people, expressed deep condolences and heart-felt sympathy to Mahmoud Abbas, the new chairman of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO),and Rawhi Fatouh, the interim chairman of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), over the tragic passing away of the 75-year-oldveteran leader.

    Hui said that Chairman Arafat was the paramount leader and outstanding statesman of the Palestinian people who strongly supported their beloved leader.

    Chairman Arafat devoted his whole life to the Palestinian cause and made indelible contributions to the Palestinians' struggle for the restoration of their legitimate national rights, Hui said.

    He said that Chairman Arafat, the founder of and promoter of Sino-Palestinian relations, paid 14 visits to China and had aprofound friendship with Chinese leaders of several generations, and made a major contribution to consolidating and developing bilateral ties.

    The Chinese government cherishes its traditional friendship wit hthe Palestinian side and is willing to work with the new Palestinian leadership to push forward bilateral ties, he said.

    The Chinese vice premier said that China has supported the Mideast peace process and hopes that the Mideast issue could besolved based on relevant UN resolutions at an early date, adding that China will continue to provide help to the Palestinian side as possible as it can.

    Hui arrived here late Thursday for the memorial ceremony, which was also attended by heads of state, ministers and representatives from more than 50 countries.

    Arafat, 75, died at 3:30 am (0230 GMT) Thursday at a French military hospital, where he had been treated over the past two weeks.

 

From Xinhua net