THE South Africa will preside tomorrow, Tuesday, an extraordinary online session of BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) “on the situation in Gauze and in the Middle East“, as the South African presidency announced today.

Russian President Vladimir Putin will take part in the summit, the Kremlin said.

Chinese President Xi Jinping will also attend the summit, according to state-run Chinese television CCTV.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa “as chairman of the BRICS group of countries” is convening a “joint emergency meeting” on the situation in Gaza at 14:00 (Greece time) tomorrow, Tuesday.

The online summit will be attended by the rest of the BRICS heads of state as well as the leaders of countries that have been invited, during the group’s recent summit in Johannesburg, to join it from next January, i.e. Saudi Arabia, Argentina, Egypt , Ethiopia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates.

The South African president, who on Friday called for an International Criminal Court investigation into the war between Israel and the Gaza Strip, along with four other countries, will open this BRICS summit, where each of the remaining countries, members or invited, is then expected to take the floor, as specified in the Pretoria announcement.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will also take part in the meeting, after which the leaders are “expected to adopt a joint declaration on the situation in the Middle East, particularly in Gaza”.

The South African government announced in early November that it was recalling its diplomats serving in Israel for consultations to “highlight” its “concern” over the “atrocities” it says have been committed by Israel in Gaza.

Pretoria has long been a staunch supporter of the Palestinian cause, with the ANC, the party in power since the country’s democracy, often drawing parallels to the situation with its own historic struggle against apartheid.