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Arab News
an hour ago
- Arab News
BRICS nations to denounce Trump tariffs for causing economic uncertainty
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil: BRICS leaders meeting in Rio de Janeiro from Sunday are expected to decry Donald Trump's hard-line trade policies, but are struggling to bridge divides over crises roiling the Middle East. Emerging nations representing about half the world's population and 40 percent of global economic output are set to unite over what they see as unfair US import tariffs, according to sources familiar with summit negotiations. Since coming to office in January, Trump has threatened allies and rivals alike with a slew of punitive tariffs. His latest salvo comes in the form of letters due to be sent starting Friday informing trading partners of new tariff rates expected next week on July 9. Diplomats from 11 emerging nations, including Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, have been busy drafting a statement condemning the economic uncertainty. Any final summit declaration is not expected to mention the United States or its president by name. But it is expected to be a clear political shot directed at Washington. 'We're anticipating a summit with a cautious tone: it will be difficult to mention the United States by name in the final declaration,' Marta Fernandez, director of the BRICS Policy Center at Rio's Pontifical Catholic University said. This is particularly the case for China, which has only recently negotiated with the US to lower steep tit-for-tat levies. 'This doesn't seem to be the right time to provoke further friction' between the world's two leading economies, Fernandez said. China leader to skip annual meeting Conceived two decades ago as a forum for fast-growing economies, the BRICS have come to be seen as a Chinese-driven counterbalance to Western power. But the summit's political punch will be depleted by the absence of China's Xi Jinping, who is skipping the annual meeting for the first time in his 12 years as president. 'I expect there will be speculation about the reasons for Xi's absence,' said Ryan Hass, a former China director at the US National Security Council who is now with the Brookings Institution think tank. 'The simplest explanation may hold the most explanatory power. Xi recently hosted Lula in Beijing,' said Hass. The Chinese leader will not be the only notable absentee. War crime-indicted Russian President Vladimir Putin is also opting to stay away, but will participate via video link, according to the Kremlin. Hass said Putin's non-attendance and the fact that India's prime minister will be a guest of honor in Brazil could also be factors in Xi's absence. 'Xi does not want to appear upstaged by Modi,' who will receive a state lunch, he said. 'I expect Xi's decision to delegate attendance to Premier Li (Qiang) rests amidst these factors.' Still, the Xi no-show is a blow to host President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who wants Brazil to play a bigger role on the world stage. In the year to November 2025, Brazil will have hosted a G20 summit, a BRICS summit, and COP30 international climate talks, all before heading into fiercely contested presidential elections next year, in which he is expected to run. No consensus on response to Gaza, Iran wars Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian, whose nation is still reeling from a 12-day conflict with Israel is also skipping the meeting. A source familiar with the negotiations said the BRICS countries were still in disagreement over how to respond to the wars in Gaza and between Iran and Israel. Iranian negotiators are pushing for a tougher collective stance that goes beyond referencing the need for the creation of a Palestinian state and for disputes to be resolved peacefully. Artificial intelligence and health will also be on the agenda at the summit. Original members of the bloc Brazil, Russia, India, and China have been joined by South Africa and, more recently, by Iran, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Ethiopia and Indonesia. Analysts say that it has given the grouping more potential international punch. But it has also opened many new fault lines. Brazil hopes that countries can take a common stand at the summit, including on the most sensitive issues. 'BRICS (countries), throughout their history, have managed to speak with one voice on major international issues, and there's no reason why that shouldn't be the case this time on the subject of the Middle East,' Brazil's Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira told AFP.
Al Arabiya
an hour ago
- Al Arabiya
Hamas says ready to start Gaza ceasefire talks ‘immediately'
Hamas on Friday said it was ready to start talks 'immediately' on a proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza, where the civil defense agency said Israel's ongoing offensive killed more than 50 people. The announcement came after consultations with other Palestinian factions and ahead of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's visit to Washington on Monday, where US President Donald Trump is pushing for an end to the war, now in its 21st month. 'The movement is ready to engage immediately and seriously in a cycle of negotiations on the mechanism to put in place' the terms of a draft US-backed truce proposal received from mediators, the armed group said in a statement. Hamas ally Islamic Jihad said it supported ceasefire talks but demanded 'guarantees' that Israel 'will not resume its aggression' once hostages held in Gaza are freed. The conflict in Gaza began with Hamas's unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, which sparked a massive Israeli offensive aimed at destroying Hamas and bringing home all the hostages seized by the group. Two previous ceasefires brokered by Qatar, Egypt, and the United States resulted in temporary halts in fighting, coupled with the return of Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners. Netanyahu earlier on Friday vowed to bring home all the hostages held in Gaza after coming under intense domestic pressure over their fate. 'I feel a deep commitment, first and foremost, to ensure the return of all our abductees, all of them,' he said. Trump said on Thursday he wanted 'safety for the people of Gaza.' 'They've gone through hell,' he said. A Palestinian source familiar with the negotiations told AFP earlier this week that the latest proposals included 'a 60-day truce, during which Hamas would release half of the living Israeli captives in the Gaza Strip' — thought to number 22 — 'in exchange for Israel releasing a number of Palestinian prisoners and detainees.' Out of 251 hostages seized by Palestinian militants during the October 2023 attack, 49 are still held in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead. Nearly 21 months of war have created dire humanitarian conditions for the more than two million people in the Gaza Strip, where Israel has recently expanded its military operations. The military said in a statement it had been striking suspected Hamas targets across the territory, including around Gaza City in the north and Khan Yunis and Rafah in the south. Gaza civil defense official Mohammad al-Mughayyir said Israeli strikes and gunfire killed at least 52 people on Friday. The Israeli military said it was looking into the reports, except for a handful of incidents for which it requested coordinates and timeframes. Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulty accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by the civil defense agency. In a separate statement, the Israeli military said a 19-year-old sergeant 'fell during combat in the southern Gaza Strip.' Mughayyir said the Palestinians killed included five people shot while waiting for aid near a US-run site in Rafah in southern Gaza, and several more near the Wadi Gaza Bridge in the center of the territory. They were the latest in a series of deaths near aid distribution centers in the devastated territory, which UN agencies have warned is on the brink of famine. At Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, crowds mourned 16 people killed on Thursday by what the civil defense agency said was shooting near a nearby aid center. 'I lost my brother in the American distribution center that they set up to feed people,' cried one mourner, Narmin Abu Muammar. 'They are killing people, not feeding them.' Medical aid charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said Abdullah Hammad, who recently finished a contract working for it, was among those killed in Thursday's shooting. It said he was the 12th colleague the group had lost in the Gaza war. 'We demand an end to this bloodshed,' MSF said in a statement. The US- and Israeli-run Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has distanced itself from reports of deadly incidents near its sites. Mughayyir told AFP that eight people, including a child, were killed in an Israeli airstrike on the tents of displaced civilians near Khan Yunis. The civil defense official said eight more people were killed in two other strikes on camps on the coast, including one that killed two children early Friday. The Israeli military said it was operating throughout Gaza 'to dismantle Hamas military capabilities.' The Hamas attack of October 2023 resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures. Israel's retaliatory military campaign has killed at least 57,268 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry. The United Nations considers the figures reliable.
Arab News
2 hours ago
- Arab News
End to war in Gaza ‘is Saudi Arabia's priority': FM Prince Faisal
A permanent ceasefire and an end to the war in Gaza are Saudi Arabia's current priority, the Kingdom's foreign minister said on Friday. Prince Faisal bin Farhan was speaking on a visit to Moscow, where he was asked about the possibility of Saudi Arabia normalizing ties with Israel. The Kingdom's main aim was peace in the Palestinian enclave, he said. 'What we are seeing is the Israelis are crushing Gaza, the civilian population of Gaza. This is completely unnecessary, completely unacceptable, and has to stop.' In 2024, the foreign minister said that there can be no normalization of ties with Israel without resolving the Palestinian issue. US President Donald Trump said he expected Hamas to respond to his 'final proposal' for a ceasefire in Gaza in the next 24 hours. Hamas said it was still studying the plan and consulting other Palestinian factions. The militant group is demanding guarantees that talks to end the war would take place during the proposed 60-day ceasefire, and that the pause in fighting would be extended until both sides came to terms. At least 20 Palestinians were killed early on Friday in Israeli airstrikes in Gaza, 15 in an attack on a tent city for displaced people near Khan Younis in the south and the other five in Jabaliya in the north. At funeral prayers for the dead in Khan Younis, Mayar Al-Farr, 13, wept over the body of her brother Mahmoud. 'The ceasefire will come, and I have lost my brother? There should have been a ceasefire long before I lost my brother,' she said. Adlar Mouamar, whose nephew Ashraf was also killed, said: 'Our hearts are broken. We ask the world, we don't want food ... we want them to end the bloodshed. We want them to stop this war.' The local health ministry in Gaza says more than 57,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's assault on the region since an October 7 attack on Israel by the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas. According to Israel, 1,200 people were killed in that attack and more than 250 taken hostage into Gaza.
