Feb 22, 2024 #G20 #Brazil #RioDeJaneiro
The conflict in Gaza has overshadowed a meeting of G20 foreign ministers in Brazil.
Earlier this

Feb 22, 2024 #G20 #Brazil #RioDeJaneiro
The conflict in Gaza has overshadowed a meeting of G20 foreign ministers in Brazil.
Earlier this week, Brazil's president accused Israel of genocide, angering Israel and its ally, the United States.

Brazil has criticised the “paralysis” of the UN Security Council (UNSC) on the wars in Gaza and Ukraine at the opening of a G20 meeting in Rio de Janeiro.

Launching the two-day meeting on Wednesday, Brazil’s Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira said the explosion of global conflicts shows international institutions such as the UN were not working, the AFP news agency reports.

“Multilateral institutions are not properly equipped to deal with the current challenges, as has been demonstrated by the Security Council’s unacceptable paralysis on the ongoing conflicts,” Vieira said, adding the situation was costing “innocent lives”, according to AFP.

Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken were said to have had a “frank exchange” in their more than 90-minute meeting on Wednesday in Brasilia ahead of the meeting.

Lula has accused Israel of committing “genocide” in Gaza and compared Israel’s war on the Palestinian territory to Hitler during the Holocaust.

A senior US State Department official told journalists after the meeting that it was “made clear we disagree with [his] comments”.

However, a State Department statement said only that Blinken had discussed with Lula “US engagement on the conflict in Gaza”, which included facilitating the release of Israeli captives, increasing humanitarian aid to Gaza, and that the protection of Palestinian civilians “improve”.

Al Jazeera's Teresa Bo reports from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.