U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres arrived at the BRICS summit in the Russian city of Kazan on Oct. 22, despite criticism from Ukraine, Voice of America reported.

The BRICS group, a bloc of countries that includes Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, and the United Arab Emirates, is convening in Kazan for a three-day summit from Oct. 22-24. According to Moscow, 36 world leaders are participating in the conference.

Guterres is expected to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the event on Oct. 24, according to Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov.

Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry criticized the U.N. secretary general’s visit.

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  • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
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    10 days ago

    Saudi is moderate on Israel, I guess, but they’re even more brutal than Iran in most other ways. The Middle East is a rough neighborhood.

    That’s a pretty strong claim, and seems to fly in the face of the fact that there’s more Arabs than Iranians out there by far. The Iranian revolution was in the mid 70’s. You know Israel had to fight for it’s existence several times before that, right? The borders everyone is telling Israel to respect are the 1967 ones, even…

    • DarthJon@lemmy.world
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      10 days ago

      Yes, the Middle East is a rough, regressive, oppressive neighborhood. Islam has a lot to do with that.

      But there are Muslim countries that have shown an interest in at least progressing from the most archaic and extreme interpretations of Islam. Those countries are pursuing normalization with Israel not because they suddenly like Jews, but because they respect the strength and prosperity of Israel and recognize it as a valuable partner for their own national development. These countries have put their past conflicts with Israel behind them.

      Ironically, the people of Iran are among the least antisemitic in that part of the world. They scored lower on the ADL Global 100 than Greece!