BRICS group calls to settle Israeli-Palestinian conflict

The BRICS group of nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) has called on both Israel and the Palestinians to resume peace talks in order to reach an agreement.

The group said in a joint statement issued on Thursday following a two-day summit in Russia for the world’s emerging economies that they are firmly convinced that settling the Palestinian-Israeli conflict will help create positive solutions to other crises in the Middle East and the establishment of firm peace in the region, Russia’s Sputnik news agency reported.

BRICS leaders said they believe that Palestinian-Israeli negotiations should result in a two-state solution, which requires the establishment of a viable Palestinian state within the 1967 borders with Jerusalem as its capital side by side with the state of Israel.

The group welcomed the Quartet efforts to bring a settlement in the Middle East.

“We reject the continuous Israeli settlement activities in the Occupied Territories, which violate international law and seriously undermine peace efforts and threaten the concept of the two-state solution,” the statement said.

The group called on the UN Security Council to assume its full responsibility set forth in the Charter of the United Nations to settle the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as soon as possible.

“We welcome all initiatives aimed at achieving intra-Palestinian unity and urge the parties in this process to facilitate to full extent the implementation of international obligations assumed by Palestine. We call on the UN Security Council to fully exercise its functions under the UN Charter with regard to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” the statement said.