BRICS summit defends dialogue for Syria, Iran

The world's biggest emerging powers on Thursday said dialogue was the only answer to the crises in Syria and Iran, seeking to buttress their economic heft with a unified diplomatic clout.
At their fourth summit, the leaders of the BRICS countries - Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa - also pushed for the creation of a new joint development bank as a counterpoint to Western-backed aid lenders.
"We agreed that a lasting solution in Syria and Iran can only be found through dialogue," Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said in a closing statement at the one-day summit in New Delhi.
A 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 UN Security Council - have stridently opposed using force or outside intervention to resolve the Syrian crisis or defuse Iran's nuclear drive.
The United States and its allies have been frustrated by a Sino-Russian veto in the Security Council on condemning Syria in stronger terms.
-AFP/NOW Lebanon