US unilateralism has wrecked the chances of peace in the Middle East, Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, told a crisis Brics meeting on Gaza as he attempted to woo leaders of the global south.
The virtual meeting of 11 nations, convened by South Africa’s president, Cyril Ramaphosa, came as Arab foreign ministers toured capitals to drum up support for a fresh UN security council resolution mandating Israel to introduce a full ceasefire and end what they say are breaches of international humanitarian law.
The moves are the latest sign of a revolt brewing among global south nations about US double standards in refusing to do more to stop the Israeli bombardment of Gaza, which so far has claimed more than 13,000 civilian lives, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
The UN security council last week made a call, not amounting to an instruction, for Israel to accept humanitarian pauses, but the Arab foreign ministers want a firmer resolution and are prepared to challenge the US not to use its veto to protect Israel. It was notable that the Arab foreign ministers, including those not allied to Iran, chose to travel first to China and Moscow to enlist their support.
Putin told the Brics meeting that the US was undermining the chances of peace by trying to monopolise diplomacy in its own self-interest. He said that “the deaths of thousands of people, the mass displacement of civilians and the humanitarian catastrophe that has unfolded are deeply disturbing”.
He added: “Due to the sabotage of UN efforts, more than one generation of Palestinians are being brought up with a sense of unfairness to their state while the Israeli people cannot fully guarantee their own security.”
Putin accused the US of sidelining other members of the Middle East Quartet – a group seeking to navigate the Israeli-Palestinian peace process that also includes Russia, the UN, and the EU. Washington had attempted to “monopolise the role of the mediator” while blocking the efforts of other international actors, he said. “History has vividly demonstrated that attempts to single-handedly cut the Palestinian knot are not viable and counterproductive.”
Other countries attending the meeting include Brazil, India, China, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, reflecting how the expanded Brics group is now a strong rival to the western G7 group of leading industrialised nations.
The Chinese president, Xi Jinping, added his voice to the call for a ceasefire in Gaza, telling the summit: “All parties in the conflicts should immediately cease fire and hostilities, stop all violence and attacks targeting civilians, and release civilian detainees to avoid more loss of lives and suffering.”
Xi said: “The root cause of the Palestinian-Israeli situation is the fact that the right of the Palestinian people to statehood, their right to existence, and their right of return have long been ignored.”
However, the eventual joint statement was relatively mild and called only for Israel to comply with international humanitarian law and accept “full, immediate, safe, unhindered and sustained humanitarian access”. It also warned Israel not to attempt to displace Palestinans from Gaza.
The Biden administration has been repeatedly told, including by its own diplomats, that it risks losing the support of the global south nations. Many of them accuse the US of double standards in condemning Russian war crimes in Ukraine while remaining largely silent on Israel’s actions in Gaza.
Opening the Brics meeting, Ramaphosa accused Israel of committing war crimes that were tantamount to genocide and collective punishment. “The collective punishment of Palestinian civilians through the unlawful use of force by Israel is a war crime,” Ramaphosa said. “The deliberate denial of medicine, fuel, food and water to the residents of Gaza is tantamount to genocide.”
Iran’s president, Ebrahim Raisi, called on the security council to adopt a binding resolution in the UN general assembly to stop attacks on Gaza and to label Israel as a terrorist regime and its army as a terrorist organisation. He called for the US to be held to account and urged the world to recognise the right of Palestinians to self-defence, a phrase that would absolve Hamas for its October attacks on Israel.
Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudi crown prince, criticised the killing of innocent civilians and the destruction of health facilities and places of worship.
The Indian prime minister, Narenda Modi, did not attend.
The Brics meeting comes before a virtual meeting on Wednesday of the wider G20 group of nations, convened by India, that will be attended by Putin.
The delegation of Arab diplomats is being led by a group appointed by the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, including the foreign ministers of Jordan, Egypt, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Palestine and the secretary general of the Arab League.
They visited the Chinese foreign minister, Wang Yi, in Beijing on Monday, before travelling to Moscow to meet the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov.
The delegation is expected also to visit France and the UK this week.
The Egyptian foreign ministry said the diplomats had “drafted a new resolution to be submitted to the security council by the Arab and Islamic groups, to deal with existing obstacles and imbalances of humanitarian aid entry to Gaza”.
Egypt’s foreign ministry said it remained convinced that the “continued bombing targeting displaced people in the south had a clear objective, and that was to force Gaza’s residents to leave the strip. Egypt has clearly declared its utter rejection of any attempt to enforce displacement of Palestinians.”