Iran urges BRICS nations to condemn US-Israeli war aggression 

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has called on fellow BRICS nations to condemn what he called violations of international law by the United States and Israel, as the war in the Middle East and the related fuel crisis dominate the two-day gathering in the Indian capital, New Delhi.

Araghchi accused the United Arab Emirates, a US ally, on Thursday of direct involvement in military operations against Iran, in a rare moment when Iranian and Emirati officials have been in the same room since the US and Israel’s war on Iran began at the end of February.

Araghchi said Iran was a “victim of illegal expansionism and warmongering”. He urged BRICS+ nations – a grouping comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran and the UAE – to resist “Western hegemony and the sense of impunity that the US believes it is entitled to”.

“Iran therefore calls upon BRICS member states and all responsible members of the international community to explicitly condemn violations of international law by the United States and Israel,” he said.

Later, Araghchi told the gathering that the UAE was “directly involved in the aggression against my country”, the Iranian semi-official Mehr news agency reported.

In response to the US and Israeli attacks on Iran, Tehran launched strikes on US military sites and assets in Gulf States, including the UAE.

It was not immediately clear how or whether the UAE and other nations attending the BRICS+ meeting had responded to Araghchi’s remarks.

India was hosting the foreign ministers from the expanded BRICS bloc, which now includes Iran, Saudi Arabia and the UAE – countries at odds over the war in the Middle East.

“We meet at a time of considerable flux in international relations,” India’s Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said in his opening speech, before closed meetings began.

Disruptions around Gulf shipping routes and the Strait of Hormuz continue to drive volatility in oil and gas markets, increasing pressure on energy-importing economies, including India.

India’s Ministry of External Affairs also condemned an attack on an Indian-flagged ship off Oman on Wednesday as “unacceptable” – with all sailors rescued safely by Muscat.

“We deplore the fact that commercial shipping and civilian mariners continue to be targeted,” the foreign ministry said, without giving further details of who launched the attack.

Araghchi insisted that the Strait of Hormuz “is open for all” commercial vessels that “cooperate” with its navy.

The US and Israel’s war on Iran has added strain to India’s economy, heavily reliant on Middle Eastern energy supplies and fertiliser imports, and has cast uncertainty over India’s growth outlook.

India, the world’s third-largest oil buyer, normally sources about half of its crude through the Strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway through which about 20 percent of the world’s oil passes in peacetime.

India will hold a BRICS leaders’ summit later this year, and the foreign ministers will also meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the foreign ministry said.

With deep divisions among some members over the war in the Middle East, it was not clear whether BRICS, which operates on consensus, would release a joint statement at the meeting’s end.

Iran’s Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs for Legal and International Affairs Kazem Gharibabadi told news agency Press Trust of India that “one member country” had pushed for language condemning Iran, complicating efforts to build consensus within the grouping.

“We want India’s BRICS chairship to be successful. It is not a good approach to send a signal to the world that the BRICS is divided,” Gharibabadi said.