Putin hosts Global South leaders at BRICS summit meant to counterbalance Western clout

KAZAN, Russia (AP) — China’s Xi Jinping, India’s Narendra Modi and other global leaders arrived Tuesday in the Russian city of Kazan for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies that the Kremlin hopes to turn into a rallying point for defying what some see as the Western liberal order.

For Russian President Vladimir Putin, the three-day meeting also offers a powerful way to demonstrate the failure of U.S.-led efforts to isolate Russia over its actions in Ukraine.

Kremlin foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov touted the summit as “the largest foreign policy event ever held” by Russia, with 36 countries attending and more than 20 of them represented by heads of state.

The alliance that initially comprised Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa has expanded rapidly to embrace Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. Turkey, Azerbaijan and Malaysia have formally applied to become members, and a few others have expressed interest in joining.

Observers see the BRICS summit as part of the Kremlin's efforts to showcase support from the Global South amid spiraling tensions with the West and help expand economic and financial ties.

Proposed projects include the creation of a new payment system that would offer an alternative to the global bank messaging network SWIFT and allow Moscow to dodge Western sanctions and trade with partners.

Putin is set to hold about 20 bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the summit, including Tuesday's encounters with China’s Xi, India’s Modi and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa.

The summit underlined the close relationship between Xi and Putin, who announced a “no-limits” partnership weeks before Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. They already have met at least twice this year, in Beijing in May and at a Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Kazakhstan in July.

Russia’s cooperation with India has also flourished as New Delhi considers Moscow a time-tested partner since Cold War times despite Russia’s close ties with India’s main rival, China.

Western allies want India to be more active in persuading Moscow to end the war in Ukraine, but Modi has avoided condemning Russia while emphasizing a peaceful settlement.

Modi, who last visited Russia in July, said this visit reflects the close friendship between the countries. Speaking at the start of his meeting with Putin, he also reaffirmed New Delhi's push for peace in Ukraine.

Putin hailed what he described as a “privileged strategic partnership" between Russia and India.

On Thursday, Putin is also set to meet with United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who will be making his first visit to Russia in more than two years. Guterres has repeatedly criticized Russia’s actions in Ukraine.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, 2nd right, arrives at Kazan International Airport prior to the BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia, Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2024. (Kirill Zykov/Photo host brics-russia2024.ru via AP)

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa arrives at Kazan International Airport prior to the BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia, Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2024. (Kirill Zykov/Photo host brics-russia2024.ru via AP)

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, second right, tries Tatar traditional sweet Chak-chak upon his arrival at Kazan International Airport for the BRICS Summit in Kazan, Russia, Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2024. (Ilya Pitalev/Photo host brics-russia2024.ru via AP)

Chinese President Xi Jinping arrives at Kazan International Airport prior to the BRICS Summit in Kazan, Russia, Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2024. (Alexei Danichev/Photo host brics-russia2024.ru via AP)

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrives at Kazan International Airport prior to the BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia, Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2024. (Ilya Pitalev/Photo host brics-russia2024.ru via AP)

Israeli airstrikes in and around Beirut caused significant damage to the country's largest public hospital and killed more than a dozen people, Lebanese health officials said, as Hezbollah launched a barrage of rockets into central Israel hours before U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in the region.

Lebanon's Health Ministry said that 57 others were wounded in airstrikes late Monday that destroyed several buildings facing the Rafik Hariri University Hospital, located on the outskirts of southern Beirut.

The Israeli military said it struck a Hezbollah target, without elaborating, and said that it had not targeted the hospital itself.

The State Department said that Blinken would focus on ending the war in Gaza, securing the release of hostages held by Hamas and alleviating the suffering of Palestinian civilians.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pledged to annihilate Hamas and recover dozens of hostages held by the group. Hamas says it will only release the captives in return for a lasting cease-fire, a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and the release of Palestinian prisoners.

On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led militants blew holes in Israel’s security fence and stormed in, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting another 250. Israel’s offensive in Gaza has killed over 42,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities, who do not distinguish combatants from civilians. The war has destroyed large areas of Gaza and displaced about 90% of its population of 2.3 million people.

Here's the latest:

BEIRUT — An Associated Press team was among journalists taken on a tour inside a hospital in Beirut’s southern suburb where the Israeli army claimed without offering evidence that Hezbollah was storing hundreds of millions of dollars in cash and gold in tunnels underneath.

The Sahel General Hospital had already been emptied of most patients and staff following intense bombardment of the area in recent days, and the few remaining ones were hastily evacuated late Monday after the Israeli claim.

“We have been living in terror for the last 24 hours,” hospital director Mazen Alame said Tuesday. “There is nothing under the hospital.”

Journalists were taken to the two floors under the hospital, the first of which had two rooms for surgeries and the other had oxygen bottles stored inside. The second floor included a morgue with six doors in one room and a giant water tank in another.

Alame said the hospital has no affiliation with any political group or religious institution and has been working under the supervision of Lebanon’s Health Ministry since its founding.

Israel has made similar claims about tunnels used by Hamas militants under hospitals in Gaza. Omar Mneimne, a doctor at the hospital’s emergency department, said he fears a repeat scenario in Lebanon.

“We fear that,” Mneimne said, adding that the international community should act to defend health facilities in Lebanon. “It’s extremely hard. It’s very stressful for the community.”

TEL AVIV, Israel — Israeli authorities said Tuesday they have arrested seven Jerusalem residents in connection with an alleged Iranian-guided plot to assassinate an Israeli scientist and mayor.

It was the latest in a series of similar alleged spy rings foiled by Israel and blamed on Iran, highlighting the ongoing shadow war between two countries even as their conflict has become more direct during the war in Gaza.

A statement by Israel’s domestic security agency Shin Bet did not name the scientist or the mayor targeted.

It said the seven people arrested were assigned various tasks as part of the alleged plot that also included blowing up a police car and lobbing a grenade to a home. The Iranian agent promised the seven roughly $50,000 dollars in exchange for the acts, the Shin Bet said. It said police found multiple credit cards, tens of thousands of shekels and a fake police car license plate.

The people arrested were not identified but were from a predominantly Palestinian area of Jerusalem, the Shin Bet said.

Tensions between Israel and Iran have soared since the killing in Tehran of Hamas’ leader Ismail Haniyeh, an attack blamed on Israel, and an Iranian missile attack on Israel earlier this month, for which Israel is expected to respond.

BEIRUT — The death toll from an Israeli airstrikes late Monday that destroyed several buildings facing one of Beirut’s main hospitals climbed to 13. Lebanon’s Health Ministry said 57 others were wounded in the strikes, including seven who were in critical condition.

It said the airstrikes caused significant damage to the Rafik Hariri University Hospital, the country’s largest public hospital, located on the outskirts of southern Beirut. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.

TEL AVIV, Israel — The U.S. is making an 11th-hour effort to resuscitate some aspects of the halted cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas weeks before the presidential election and as Israel’s invasion of neighboring Lebanon intensifies, according to a senior State Department official.

Since negotiations fell apart over the summer, Americans have shifted to focus on a post-war plan for Israel and Gaza. The State Department official, who spoke on condition of anonymity late Monday to preview Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s strategy, said that stakeholders have reached consensus on some aspects of the so-called day-after plan and that the U.S. is hopeful that this progress will create goodwill to get parties back to the table on a ceasefire.

The source added that the decision to go to Israel before meeting with Arab partners was a shift in the U.S.'s negotiation strategy.

The U.S. has long pushed for a postwar settlement in which a reformed Palestinian Authority would govern Gaza with help from Arab states and Saudi Arabia would normalize relations with Israel.

But Arab leaders insist such plans would depend on a pathway to Palestinian statehood, something to which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is deeply opposed. He has ruled out any postwar role for the PA and says local Palestinians will administer Gaza, with Israel maintaining open-ended security control.

Blinken also planned to reiterate concerns about the humanitarian aid crisis in Gaza outlined that U.S. officials laid out in a recent letter to Israel, the official said.

But official said that an anticipated Israeli retaliation against Iran is looming over the meeting, which will likely be the last time Blinken and Netanyahu meet before the U.S. presidential election.

— By Farnoush Amiri

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Israel on Tuesday on his 11th visit to the region since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war, as the U.S. hopes to revive cease-fire efforts after the killing of top Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.

Blinken is expected to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other top officials. Following Israel, he’s expected to visit a number of Arab countries, likely to include Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

Here more here.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iran said Tuesday that its Arab Gulf neighbors wouldn’t allow their territory to be used for an expected Israeli strike as the Islamic Republic once again vowed to respond to any attack.

The comments from Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi come as speculation grows over how Israel will retaliate for Tehran’s Oct. 1 ballistic missile attack on Israel.

Speaking in Kuwait as part of a Mideast tour, Araghchi insisted that Gulf Arab neighbors he’s spoken to wouldn’t allow their territory to be used.

“All the neighbors assured us that they will not allow their lands and air to be used against Iran,” Araghchi said, according to the state-run IRNA news agency. “This is an expectation from all friendly and neighboring countries and we consider this a sign of friendship.”

However, many Gulf Arab nations host major U.S. military installations, like Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, as a hedge against any possible attack by Iran. Washington also has based aircraft carriers around the region as tensions have persisted in the wake of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel and the subsequent wars raging across the Mideast.

Gulf Arab nations have not made any public pledges like those described by Araghchi.

There have been tensions in the Persian Gulf and among Gulf Arab countries since Tehran launched a series of attacks targeting shipping in the region in 2019 over the U.S.'s unilateral withdraw from Iran’s nuclear deal with world powers as well.

Separately, Pezeshkian warned that Israel will face a “corresponding answer” for any attack it carries out.

BEIRUT — Lebanon’s state news agency says another Israeli airstrike has targeted the country’s main border crossing with Syria, leaving a second large crater on the highway running through it.

The National News Agency reported that the early Tuesday airstrike was closer to the Syrian side of the crossing, known as Jdeidet Yabous. Syrian TV also reported an airstrike in the border area.

An Israeli airstrike on Oct. 5 blocked a highway and left a giant crater near the Lebanese side of the crossing, known as Masnaa, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) from Beirut.

That strike prevented vehicles from going through the crossing, which tens of thousands of people have used to flee to Syria.

People now have to walk by foot in or around the two large craters several kilometers (miles) away.

The Israeli military has accused the Hezbollah militant group of using the Masnaa crossing to truck in military equipment from Syria. There was no immediate comment on the latest strike.

TEL AVIV, Israel — Hezbollah launched a barrage of rockets into central Israel on Tuesday, setting off air raid sirens in the country’s most populated areas but causing no apparent damage or injuries.

The Israeli military said five projectiles were fired from Lebanon into Israel and said most were intercepted by Israel’s missile defense system. One landed in an open area.

Israeli police said there were no reports of damage or injury following the salvo.

The Israeli military said that at the same time, about 15 projectiles were fired from Lebanon into northern Israel.

Earlier Tuesday, air raid sirens went off in the Israeli-occupied West Bank after a rocket was launched from Lebanon, the Israeli military said. Damage was caused to homes in the Palestinian village of Shuqba.

The rocket fire came as Israel stepped up its strikes in Lebanon, targeting a Hezbollah-run financial institution, and as Israeli troops push ahead in their invasion of southern Lebanon.

An excavator sifts through the rubble as rescue workers search for victims at the site of Israeli airstrikes that destroyed buildings, facing the city's main government hospital in a densely-populated neighborhood, in southern Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Foreign and local journalists take a tour inside Sahel General Hospital, in Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Foreign and local journalists take a tour inside Sahel General Hospital, in Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2024, a day after the Israeli army said that Hezbollah is storing hundreds of millions of dollars in cash and gold under the hospital. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

A man walks at the site of Israeli airstrikes that destroyed buildings facing the city's main government hospital in a densely-populated neighborhood, in southern Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2024.(AP Photo/Hussein Malla)w

A man carries his belonging as he leaves the site of Israeli airstrikes that destroyed buildings facing the city's main government hospital in a densely-populated neighborhood, in southern Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2024.(AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Foreign and local journalists take a tour inside Sahel General Hospital, in Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2024, a day after the Israeli army said that Hezbollah is storing hundreds of millions of dollars in cash and gold under the hospital. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

A rescue worker, center, takes off his mask to breathe, as he works at the site of Israeli airstrikes that destroyed buildings facing the city's main government hospital in southern Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Journalists take a tour inside Sahel General Hospital, in Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2024, a day after the Israeli army said that Hezbollah is storing hundreds of millions of dollars in cash and gold under the hospital. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Israeli soldiers close the gate of Erez Crossing after trucks carrying humanitarian aid entered the Gaza Strip, in southern Israel, Monday, Oct. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov)

Women from the Israeli Druze minority mourn during the funeral of Israeli Colonel Ehsan Daxa in Daliyat al-Carmel, Israel, Monday, Oct. 21, 2024. Daxa, 41, was killed during Israel's ground operation in the Gaza Strip, where the Israeli army has been battling Palestinian militants in the war ignited by Hamas' Oct. 7 2023 attack into Israel. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

Israeli soldiers carry the flagged-covered coffin of Israeli Druze Colonel Ehsan Daxa, in Daliyat al-Carmel, Israel, Monday, Oct. 21, 2024. Daxa, 41, was killed during Israel's ground operation in the Gaza Strip, where the Israeli army has been battling Palestinian militants in the war ignited by Hamas' Oct. 7 2023 attack into Israel. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

Men from the Israeli Druze minority mourn during the funeral of Israeli Colonel Ehsan Daxa in Daliyat al-Carmel, Israel, Monday, Oct. 21, 2024. Daxa, 41, was killed during Israel's ground operation in the Gaza Strip, where the Israeli army has been battling Palestinian militants in the war ignited by Hamas' Oct. 7 2023 attack into Israel. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

A bust of the late Iranian General Qassem Soleimani stands in front of a destroyed branch of the Hezbollah-run Qard al-Hassan, which was hit by an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, Oct. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

People displaced by Israel's war on Hezbollah leave a building after scuffle with members of the Lebanese security, after dozens of policemen arrived at the building to evict the displaced from the private property, in Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, Oct. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

People displaced by Israel's war on Hezbollah scuffle with members of the Lebanese security, after dozens of policemen arrived at the building to evict the displaced from the private property, in Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, Oct. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

People displaced by Israel's war on Hezbollah gesture after scuffle with members of the Lebanese security, after dozens of policemen arrived at the building to evict the displaced from the private property, in Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, Oct. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Flames and smoke rise from an Israeli airstrike on Dahiyeh in the southern suburb of Beirut, Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

Smoke rises from an Israeli airstrike on Dahiyeh, in the southern suburb of Beirut, Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

Middle East latest: Hezbollah fires rockets into central Israel

People take cover as a siren warns of incoming rockets during the funeral of Alexei Popov, who was killed during a rocket attack fired from Lebanon last weekend, at the Tel Regev cemetery in the outskirts of Haifa, northern Israel, Monday, Oct. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

Middle East latest: Hezbollah fires rockets into central Israel