Brazil’s Lula Opens BRICS Summit by Condemning Israel’s ‘Genocide’ in Gaza
Rio de Janeiro (Quds News Network)- Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has opened the BRICS summit with a speech in which he condemned Israel’s war on Gaza, saying, “We cannot stand by indifferent to the genocide being committed by Israel against the people of Palestine.”
He also told the leaders from China, India and other nations on Sunday that Israel’s use of hunger as a weapon of war was absolutely unacceptable and that the only solution was for Israel to abandon the occupied territories and the establishment of a Palestinian State within the 1967 borders.
Leaders of the growing BRICS group are gathering in Rio de Janeiro for a two-day summit in which they are expected to discuss ways to increase cooperation amid what they say are serious concerns over Western dominance.
At the BRICS summit, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi also said the US and Israel are violating the UN Charter and have engaged in “illegal” attacks on Iran, Gaza and elsewhere.
“I call on everyone to truly understand the depth and the repulsiveness of this lawlessness, and the extremely dangerous consequences of the continued impunity of the Israeli regime in its occupation, apartheid, genocide and warmongering in our region,” he said.
The BRICS leaders meeting in Rio de Janeiro have also called on all parties to the war in Gaza to “engage in good faith in further negotiations to achieve an immediate, permanent and unconditional ceasefire”.
In a joint statement, the 10-nation bloc also called for a “full withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip and all other parts of the Occupied Palestinian Territories.”
It also condemned US and Israeli attacks on Iran and urged “just and lasting” solutions to conflicts across the Middle East.
The remarks came as Gaza truce talks between Israel and Hamas resumed in Doha and as pressure mounted to end Israel’s 21-month genocide, which has killed more than 57,400 people, the majority children and women.
