BRICS leaders say dialogue is only solution for Syria and Iran

The BRICS group of emerging market nations agreed at a summit Thursday that only dialogue can resolve violence in Syria and the crisis over Iran’s nuclear ambitions, Indian Premier Manmohan Singh said.

“We agreed that a lasting solution in Syria and Iran can only be found through dialogue,” Singh said in a closing statement at the summit in New Delhi attended by the leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

The summit declaration warned of the “disastrous consequences” of allowing the Iran standoff to escalate into conflict and stressed that the bloodshed in Syria could only be resolved by “peaceful means.”

The declaration also voiced the bloc’s united support for a Syrian peace process promoted by international envoy Kofi Annan.

Russia and China, which both wield vetoes on the U.N. Security Council, have stridently opposed using force or outside intervention to resolve the Syrian crisis or defuse Iran’s nuclear drive.