Putin says Middle East nearing all-out war at BRICS summit

The Middle East is on the brink of a full-scale war after a sharp rise in tension between Israel and Iran, Russian President Vladimir Putin told BRICS leaders on Thursday during a summit held in Kazan.

“The degree of confrontation between Israel and Iran has sharply increased. All this resembles a chain reaction and puts the entire Middle East on the brink of a full-scale war,” Putin said as he sat next to Chinese President Xi Jinping.

The BRICS summit, attended by more than 20 leaders, including Xi, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and Turkey’s Tayyip Erdogan, has shown the depth of Russia’s relations beyond the Western world. Much discussion at the summit in the Russian city of Kazan was dedicated to the war in Ukraine and the violence in the Middle East, though there was no sign that anything specific would be done to end either conflict. Russia has diplomatic relations with Israel, but is also allied with Iran. Tehran has supplied Moscow with missile and armed drones for its war against Ukraine.

Xi, speaking after Putin, said that there should be a comprehensive ceasefire in Gaza, a halt to the spread of war in Lebanon and a return to the two-state solution under which states for both Israel and Palestine would be established.

‘What is necessary to deter further aggression’

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has urged Israel not to escalate its war with Iran and its proxies in several public statements during his visit to the Middle East this week. He also raised the issue on Tuesday when he met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Blinken addressed the issue on Thursday during a joint press conference with Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed Al-Thani in Doha.

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