China bats for Pakistan’s inclusion in BRICS; Modi says India supports expansion based on consensus

News Network
August 23, 2023

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Johannesburg, Aug 23: China wants to integrate Pakistan into the BRICS alliance (Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa), and Chinese President XI Jinping’s attempt has triggered a diplomatic complexity. This development arises as China argues that the BRICS coalition should expand its membership to include more developing nations, using this rationale to advocate for Pakistan's inclusion.

Earlier in 2023, Pakistan, along with other countries like Argentina, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia, expressed their interest in joining BRICS. 

The motivations behind this inclination toward BRICS are rooted in developing nations' dissatisfaction with the stringent conditions imposed by Western-dominated institutions. Additionally, there is scepticism among these countries about Western values, viewing them as a façade to advance self-serving agendas.

Meanwhile, several Indian media reports claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government has opposed China’s bid for inclusion of Pakistan and expressed fear that it could dilute the alliance's core objectives and consensus built among its existing members. 

However, addressing the annual summit of leaders of BRICS in Johannesburg on Wednesday, Modi asserted that for a "future-ready" BRICS, the societies of these five countries will have to be "future-ready" and extended India's support to the expansion of the grouping based on consensus.

The Indian PM also hoped that India's proposal to make the African Union a permanent member of the G20 will be supported by BRICS member nations.

"We will have to make our societies future-ready to make BRICS future-ready," he said at the meet in Johannesburg. 

Welcoming the move to give special importance to countries of the Global South under the South African presidency of the BRICS, Modi said India has given the "highest priority" to the countries of the Global South under its G20 presidency as well.

India fully supports the expansion of BRICS and welcomes the move to take forward the proposal based on consensus, he said.

The Prime Minister said the BRICS embarked on a long and amazing journey in the last two decades and highlighted how the New Development Bank of the grouping is playing an important role in carrying forward developmental activities in the Global South.

India suggested measures in areas of Railway research networks, and cooperation among MSMEs and start-ups and there has been significant progress in these fields, Modi said.

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News Network
November 12,2024

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The UN humanitarian coordinator for Lebanon has warned that the “picture of life in Lebanon remains grim,” highlighting an "alarming" level of human suffering and significant humanitarian consequences due to the ongoing Israeli carnage.

Imran Riza, the UN Deputy Special Coordinator and Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Lebanon (UNSCOL), provided a stark overview of the Arab country's dire circumstances in a statement released on Monday.

“The current picture of life in Lebanon remains grim. Yesterday, airstrikes reportedly killed 23 people, including seven children, in the village of Aalmat in Mount Lebanon,” Riza said on X.

An airstrike in the city of Tyre on the same day resulted in the tragic deaths of five siblings from a single family, all of whom had special needs, according to his statement.

He added that in the last week, Israeli airstrikes have killed at least 241 individuals and left 642 others injured in Lebanon, as reported by the Ministry of Health.

“In the past month, more than 185,000 people have fled their homes in their search for safety within the country, bringing the total to over 870,000 people internally displaced,” Riza said

The UN official highlighted that numerous individuals, including the elderly and those with health issues, are staying behind while witnessing the ruins of their ancestral homes.

He urged for the swift safeguarding of civilian people and infrastructure, emphasizing the necessity to uphold international humanitarian law and end the ongoing violence.

Lebanon’s National News Agency reported that Israeli forces bombed a house in the town of Maydoun in Bekaa on Monday night, killing three people and destroying the house.

Earlier, Israel bombed the northern town of Ain Yaaqoub, killing at least 14 people.

The killings came as Israeli military continued to pound Lebanon, bombing shops selling electrical appliances in the southern city of Tyre and carrying out air raids on the towns of Shamshtar in eastern Baalbek and Roumine in southern Nabatieh.

Lebanon’s Ministry of Health said Israeli attacks killed at least 54 people across the country on Monday.

Israel’s merciless attacks continue despite calls from the UN Security Council for an immediate ceasefire and directives from the International Court of Justice urging measures to prevent genocide and alleviate the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza and Lebanon.

In Lebanon, at least 3,243 people have been killed and 14,134 others wounded in Israeli attacks since the war on Gaza began on October 7, 2023.

The Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah opened a support front for Palestinians in Gaza only a day after the Israeli regime unleashed its genocidal war on the besieged territory.

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News Network
November 21,2024

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Hamas says the Israeli regime’s sole objective lies in “erasing” the entirety of the Palestinian population from across the Palestinian territories.

Khalil al-Hayya, a ranking official with the Gaza Strip-based Palestinian resistance movement, made the remarks to the Palestinian al-Aqsa TV on Wednesday.

“The occupation targets everyone—it strikes hospitals, civil defense, women, children, and the elderly,” he said, adding that the regime sought to “empty Gaza of its residents, and displace the Palestinian people to fulfill its dreams of building a Zionist Jewish state across all of Palestine.”

The remarks came amid the regime’s October 2023-present war of genocide on the coastal sliver that has so far claimed the lives of nearly 44,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children.

“This unprecedented aggression in modern times evokes scenes from the dark ages of human history, having crossed all red lines and exceeded every expectation of brutality in the modern era,” the Palestinian official lamented.

He also regretted that the regime had added “systematic and dangerous starvation to its aggression, falsely claiming before the world that it allows 250 [aid] trucks into Gaza daily. In reality, the number of trucks is far fewer.”

Hayya, meanwhile, regretted that “scenes of children torn apart, women screaming over their children, and heart-wrenching destruction have failed to stir enough humanity to stop these crimes.”

He decried the United States for vetoing the United Nations Security Council’s resolutions that are aimed at bringing about a potential ceasefire in the war, saying this indicated Washington’s “partnership in the aggression” and a simultaneous siege that the Israeli regime has been enforcing on Gaza.

Addressing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the official asserted that, despite what the Israeli official is after, Hamas would not hand over the regime’s captives “without [the regime’s] stopping the war.”

He called Netanyahu “the main obstacle” in the way of cessation of the aggression, saying the Israeli premier “blocks any progress for political reasons,” and citing his preventing conclusion of a ceasefire agreement in July.

Hayya also warned that the regime sought to expand the war beyond Gaza, but asserted that its goals are “impossible and will never happen.”

“Today, the enemy exposes its true intentions of extermination and displacement, but it will fail,” he stressed.

“The Palestinian people are resilient and will not surrender, as they believe in their humanitarian and political cause. The enemy and its allies will not succeed in achieving their goals. This steadfast people will endure, and the occupation will not prevail against them.”

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News Network
November 19,2024

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