South Africa to host BRICS summit on Israeli war on Gaza

AFP , Monday 20 Nov 2023

South Africa will Tuesday host a virtual summit of the BRICS group of nations, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, to discuss the Israeli war on Gaza, Pretoria and Moscow said Monday.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa listens during the BRICS group of emerging economies three-day summit in Johannesburg, South Africa, Tuesday, Aug. 22, 2023. AP

 

The BRICS -- Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa -- are a group of major emerging economies seeking to reshape the US and Western-led global order.

Tuesday's "Extraordinary Joint Meeting on the Middle East Situation in Gaza" will be hosted by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa in the hope of drawing up a common response to the more than six-week conflict.

Leaders from Saudi Arabia, Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates -- who are all due to join the BRICS group in January 2024 -- will attend the meeting.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will also participate, the South African presidency said in a statement.

It added that all five BRICS heads of state will join the virtual summit, after which a joint statement with particular reference to Gaza is expected.

War is raging in Gaza after a shock Hamas Al-Aqsa Flood operation on October 7 killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, with around 240 people taken captive according to Israeli officials.

In Gaza, around 13,300 people, more than 5,600 of them children, alongside 3,550 women have been killed in the retaliatory air and ground offensive, with another 31,000 people wounded, officials in Gaza have said.

South Africa has long been a vocal supporter of the Palestinian cause, with the ruling African National Congress (ANC) party often linking it to its own struggle against apartheid.

The ANC said last Thursday that it would support a parliamentary motion to suspend diplomatic relations with Israel until it agrees to a ceasefire in Gaza, decrying the "genocidal actions of the Israeli regime".

On Friday, South Africa joined four other nations in calling for an International Criminal Court investigation into the Israeli war on Gaza.

China has historically been sympathetic to the Palestinians and supportive of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Beijing has been calling for an immediate ceasefire since the start of the war last month.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has accused the West of stoking tensions in the Middle East, and criticised Israel for its conduct in the conflict.

Putin skipped the last BRICS annual summit in Johannesburg as he is the target of an International Criminal Court arrest warrant -- a provision that South Africa as an ICC member would be expected to implement if he were to set foot in the country.

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