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On Syria, BRICS Ministers Call for "Immediate Simultaneous Cease Fire"

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, September 26 -- When India's Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai held a press conference at his country's mission Wednesday afternoon, he read a prepared statement and took only two questions. But handed out in the Mission's windowless room was a four-sentence "BRICS Meeting of Ministers of Foreign Affairs Statement to the Press" on Syria.

  These minister of BRICS are calling for an "immediate simultaneous cease fire." Inner City Press is putting the Statement online here, as a JPEG.

  Earlier, failed envoy Kofi Annan said it was for the Syrian government to stop first. That is not with the BRICS ministers are calling for. It is also unclear how the various parts of the armed opposition could or would simultaneously cease fire.

  While the Statement was presented as having been adopted, and Russia's Sergey Lavrov has having said his country supports India for a permanent seat on the Security Council, at least one other BRICS country would not confirm the statement to "its" press corps. And so it goes. Watch this site.