The BRICS countries, including some of those that joined after the recent enlargement of the group, called Tuesday for an end to Israel’s aggression in the Gaza Strip, which is now a month and a half old.
The bloc made this request in a communiqué issued at the end of its summit to discuss the Gaza crisis, convened by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, whose country chairs the BRICS this year.
Ramaphosa, called for an “immediate and complete ceasefire” in the Israeli occupation army’s assault on Gaza. “Israel’s actions are in clear violation of international law, including the UN Charter and the Geneva Convention,” he said.
The South African leader noted that, “The collective punishment of Palestinian civilians through Israel’s unlawful use of force is a war crime. The deliberate denial of medicine, fuel, food and water to the residents of Gaza amounts to genocide,” he said.
For his part, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi called for declaring Israel a terrorist regime and adopting a binding resolution at the UN against the Jewish state over the conflict in the Gaza Strip.
“The Zionist regime’s continuous attacks on hospitals and medical centers, and religious sites, the killing of women, children, doctors, nurses are all terrorist acts,” Raisi said.
“It is necessary to declare this fake regime as a terrorist regime and its Army as a terrorist organization,” the Iranian president added.
In turn, Russian President Vladimir Putin called for a “diplomatic solution” to Israel’s escalation against the Gaza Strip: “Russia’s position on the situation in Gaza is consistent and not opportunistic. Moscow insists on a diplomatic solution to the problem”.
In this way, Putin said that the “efforts of the United Nations to ensure the peaceful coexistence of the two states, Israel and Palestine, have been “sabotaged”, so that more than one generation of Palestinians has grown up amid an atmosphere of injustice”.
The Russian president also blamed the United States during his speech for “monopolizing peace efforts in the Middle East, while blocking positive interventions by other actors.”
In another speech, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva called for action to prevent the Zionist escalation from spreading to other countries: “We must act to prevent the war from spreading to neighboring countries”.
“The contribution of the BRICS, in its new configuration, together with all the actors in favor of self-restraint and de-escalation is valuable and essential,” Lula said. The South American president stressed that “Brazil does not believe that peace is achieved only by force of arms.”
Finally, Chinese President Xi Jinping called for an end to Israel’s “collective punishment” against the Gaza Strip, including forced displacement and deprivation of water and electricity: “Collective punishment of the population in the form of forced displacement and deprivation of water, electricity and fuel must stop.”
According to Xi, “China believes that the conflict must end to prevent the deaths of more people,” while also calling for the opening of humanitarian aid corridors in Gaza.
“The international community should act with practical measures to prevent the conflict from spreading and endangering the stability of the region,” he said.