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The BRICS summit, attended by more than 20 leaders, including Chinese President Xi Jinping, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Turkey’s Tayyip Erdogan, showed the depth of Russia’s relationship beyond the Western world.
Russian President Vladimir Putin (Image: Reuters)
Russian President Vladimir Putin told BRICS leaders on Thursday that the Middle East was on the brink of full-scale war following a sharp rise in tensions between Israel and Iran, even as the Kremlin chief also faced calls to end the war in Ukraine.
The BRICS summit, attended by more than 20 leaders, including Chinese President Xi Jinping, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Turkey’s Tayyip Erdogan, showed the depth of Russia’s relationship beyond the Western world.
Much of the discussion at the summit in the Russian city of Kazan focused on the war in Ukraine and violence in the Middle East, although there were no signs that anything concrete would be done to end either conflict.
“The degree of confrontation between Israel and Iran has increased sharply. All of this looks like a chain reaction and puts the entire Middle East on the brink of a full-scale war,” Putin said, sitting next to Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Xi, speaking after Putin, said China wanted a political settlement in Ukraine and suggested joint efforts between Beijing and Brazil offered the best chance for peace.
“We must work for an early de-escalation of the situation and pave the way for a political settlement,” Xi said.
As for the Middle East, Xi said there must be a comprehensive ceasefire in Gaza, an end to the spread of the war in Lebanon and a return to the two-state solution, which would create states for both Israel and Palestine .
“FLAMES OF WAR”
Iranian President Massoud Pezeshkian criticized international organizations, especially the United Nations, for failing to end the conflict.
“The flames of war continue to rage in the Gaza Strip and the cities of Lebanon, and international institutions, especially the UN Security Council as an engine of international peace and security, do not have the necessary effectiveness to extinguish the fire of this crisis,” said Pezeshkian BRICS.
Putin said that if the Palestinians do not get their state, they will feel the burden of “historical injustice” and the region will remain in “an atmosphere of permanent crisis with inevitable relapses of large-scale violence.”
In their summit declaration, BRICS leaders called for the creation of a sovereign, independent and viable Palestinian state within the 1967 borders. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas attended the meeting.
At one of the BRICS+ meetings on Thursday, Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar sat in place of Modi, who also skipped one of the group photos. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said he could not travel to Russia due to a head injury.
China, which together with India buys about 90 percent of Russia’s oil, has supported more countries from the Global South joining the BRICS group in various formats, Xi said.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who was criticized by Kiev for attending the meeting in Russia, said peace was needed in Gaza, Lebanon, Sudan and Ukraine.
“We need peace in Ukraine,” Guterres said at the BRICS+ meeting, which was chaired by Putin. “A just peace in accordance with the UN Charter, international law and the resolutions of the UN General Assembly.”
(This story was not edited by News18 staff and was published by a syndicated news agency feed – Reuters)
