RIO DE JANEIRO – U.S. opposition to an immediate ceasefire in Gaza came under repeated criticism during a two-day meeting of chief diplomats from the world's 20 largest economies, the latest sign of Washington's isolation on the issue.
Brazilian Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira, host of this year's Group of 20 meeting, began the meeting by condemning the “paralysis” in the United Nations Security Council, where Washington vetoed a third resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza earlier this year had week.
“This state of inaction results in the loss of innocent lives,” Vieira said.
The meeting's top diplomats, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, expressed their views on various geopolitical issues in a session closed to the media so officials could speak more candidly.
But inadvertently, a small group of journalists, including from the Washington Post, were able to listen in on the meeting because the audio headsets continued to broadcast the remarks, unbeknownst to the Brazilian moderators.
Australia, a close ally of the United States, backed an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and warned strongly of the “further devastation” that could result from Israel's announced military campaign in the southern city of Rafah, where more than a million Palestinians have been displaced and sought shelter.
“We say to Israel again: do not go down this path,” said Australia’s representative Katy Gallagher. “That would be unjustifiable.”
South Africa, which has accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza, a charge Israel strenuously denies, said world leaders had “allowed impunity to prevail.”
“We have failed the Palestinian people,” said Naledi Pandor, South Africa’s minister for international relations and cooperation.
South Africa is pushing for genocide charges against Israel at the international court
The accidentally broadcast remarks marked a sharp contrast to the G-20 meeting in India last year, where Blinken sought to unite world powers and condemn Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Back then, Blinken found a more receptive audience when he invoked the United Nations Charter and principles of sovereignty to criticize Moscow's land grab.
But in Brazil, diplomats invoked the same principles to criticize the ongoing war in Gaza, where the United States has provided Israel with political protection and billions of dollars' worth of bombs and military equipment.
“For example, if we had united” behind the “principles of the UN Charter,” South Africa’s representative said, “the tragedy in Palestine would not have lasted more than three months.”
Blinken told reporters on Thursday that he sees the G-20 as broadly united on goals in the conflict, despite strong disagreements over an immediate ceasefire.
“Everyone supports the attempt to reach a hostage-taking agreement. Everyone supports an extended humanitarian ceasefire. … Everyone supports finding a way to end the conflict,” he said.
“There may be differences in tactics … but we're trying to focus on actually getting results,” Blinken added.
But analysts said the contrast between Washington's global standing from one year to the next was stark.
“A year ago, the U.S. had Russia on the backfoot with Ukraine,” said Richard Gowan, a multilateral affairs expert at the International Crisis Group. “Now it looks like the Biden administration is losing control of events in Ukraine and Gaza and could also lose control of the November elections.”
Among Latin American countries, the United States received a rare reprieve during comments from Argentina, whose recently elected libertarian leader Javier Milei is staunchly pro-Israel.
While acknowledging that the conflict had caused a “humanitarian catastrophe,” the Argentine representative condemned Hamas’ “terrorist acts” and called for the “unconditional release of the hostages.”
U.S. officials said they remained focused on working toward Brazil's goals for the G-20, including coordinating labor practices, climate change and food security. They said they hoped differences over Gaza would not derail those efforts, but comments by the Brazilian president days before Blinken's arrival comparing the massacre of Palestinians in Gaza to the genocide of Jews during World War II raised another concern obstacle.
During the senior U.S. diplomat's meeting with Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on Wednesday, Blinken “made it clear that we disagree with these comments,” a senior State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said at a sensitive hour to discuss. half discussion between the two leaders. “I would say the two of them had a frank exchange.”
As president of Latin America's most populous country and host of the G-20, Lula has taken on an outsized role as the voice of developing countries when it comes to the wars in Gaza and Ukraine, in both cases criticizing Washington's opposition to an immediate ceasefire.
At the meeting, Blinken made clear his view that the United States would not support an immediate ceasefire because it would leave Hamas in place to repeat attacks against Israel, the senior official said.
According to the Gaza Health Ministry, U.S. intelligence officials believe that Israeli forces have significantly weakened Hamas's capabilities, but believe that after more than 100 days of war and nearly 30,000 Palestinians killed, they are still nowhere near the end Eliminate group. The attack began on October 7 after Hamas militants invaded southern Israel, killing more than 1,200 people and taking about 240 hostage.
Lula on Sunday commented on the large number of civilian casualties in the war, accusing Israel of committing a “genocide” and comparing it to “when Hitler decided to kill the Jews.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on social media that Lula was “trivializing” the Holocaust and “trying to harm the Jewish people and Israel's right to self-defense.”
Blinken relayed to Lula U.S. efforts to negotiate a deal between Hamas and Israel that would include the release of prisoners in exchange for a humanitarian pause in fighting and an increase in humanitarian aid.