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Boston Globe
05-07-2025
- Business
- Boston Globe
An isolated Iran looks to BRICS for allies, testing a new world order
Behind the scenes, divisions over how harshly BRICS should condemn the strikes have tested the alliance's ambitions to rebalance global power dynamics by offering a counterweight to the West. Advertisement 'There is no alignment whatsoever on Iran,' said Oliver Stuenkel, an expert on BRICS and an associate professor at the Getúlio Vargas Foundation, a Brazilian university. 'So the solution was this very inoffensive position.' BRICS was founded in 2009 with the goal of increasing the influence of the world's biggest emerging economies. The group has since grown to include Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates. Unlike NATO, where military cooperation is central, the group has focused on an economic and geopolitical agenda, though it has struggled to make significant strides on many of its concrete goals, serving so far as a mostly symbolic alliance. Advertisement Analysts expect Iran to use the upcoming summit as an opportunity to shore up more forceful support from the group, particularly in a communique expected to be issued at the end of the meeting. Iran has confirmed it will send a delegation to Brazil, though it is not yet clear who will represent the country or whether it will hold bilateral meetings with members such as Russia and China. 'The optics of being part of the BRICS is very important' for Iran right now, said Sanam Vakil, the director of the Middle East and North Africa program at Chatham House. But within the group, diverging views on the recent attacks on Iran have highlighted the challenges posed by the alliance's rapid expansion, adding members with competing visions of the bloc's role on the global stage. 'It does make consensus more difficult to have more countries around the table,' Paulo Nogueira Batista Jr., an economist and former vice president of the BRICS development bank. China and Russia see BRICS as a way to challenge the United States' influence on geopolitics and decision-making, and have pushed the group to grow in size. Russia called the US strikes on Iran's nuclear sites an 'unprovoked act of aggression,' while China urged 'restraint' and dialogue. Brazil, which is hosting the summit, condemned the attacks, while trying to avoid souring its relations with the United States, its second-biggest trading partner after China. Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has resisted pressure from Russia and China to position BRICS as an anti-Western alliance, analysts said, instead casting the bloc as a way to give developing nations more say. Advertisement 'Brazil is not looking for trouble,' Stuenkel said. 'It is much closer to the United States than to Iran. It has no reason to buy into this fight.' India, another country with close ties to the United States, has also diverged on issues such as the Iran strike. South Africa and Ethiopia have been similarly cautious about alienating the West. This is not the first time that the group has experienced internal division in the face of conflict. After Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the alliance struggled to agree on a common stance, critiquing the West's imposition of sanctions on Moscow without addressing Russia's role in the war. President Vladimir Putin will not attend the gathering in Rio in person but will join virtually, Russia's state media reported. There is a warrant for his arrest related to the invasion of Ukraine that was issued by the International Criminal Court, to which Brazil is a signatory. In a first, China's leader, Xi Jinping, will also skip the summit, after meeting with Lula in Beijing in May and attending the Group of 20 summit in Rio de Janeiro last year. China's premier, Li Qiang, will travel to Brazil instead. Brazil holds the BRICS presidency, and Lula had hoped to cement his nation's image as a leader in pursuing an agenda focused on fairness in global governance and financial systems. But with the conflict involving Iran as a backdrop, analysts say the group will have a hard time forging a united front. 'I just hope we don't see the progress made last year being undone,' said Batista, the economist. Advertisement This article originally appeared in
Time of India
05-07-2025
- Business
- Time of India
An isolated Iran looks to BRICS for allies, testing a new world order
Live Events (You can now subscribe to our (You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel Battered by 12 days of war, Iran stands mostly alone and weakened in the Middle East. Yet the Islamic Republic has found friends elsewhere in the Sunday in Rio de Janeiro, Iran will join a two-day meeting of the BRICS group that includes Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa and other countries. It will be a chance for Iran, a newcomer to the group, to show it has powerful allies, even as it faces sanctions and threats of more military strikes over its nuclear Israel and the United States launched military strikes on Iran last month, the BRICS group issued a statement expressing "grave concern" and calling the attacks a breach of international law and the United Nations Charter. Still the alliance, whose members represent more than half of the world's population, stopped short of outright criticizing Israel or the United the scenes, divisions over how harshly BRICS should condemn the strikes have tested the alliance's ambitions to rebalance global power dynamics by offering a counterweight to the West."There is no alignment whatsoever on Iran," said Oliver Stuenkel, an expert on BRICS and an associate professor at the Getúlio Vargas Foundation, a Brazilian was founded in 2009 with the goal of increasing the influence of the world's biggest emerging economies. The group has since grown to include Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran and the United Arab expect Iran to use the upcoming summit as an opportunity to shore up more forceful support from the group, particularly in a communique expected to be issued at the end of the has confirmed it will send a delegation to Brazil, though it is not yet clear who will represent the country or whether it will hold bilateral meetings with members like Russia and China."The optics of being part of the BRICS is very important" for Iran right now, said Sanam Vakil, the director of the Middle East and North Africa program at Chatham and Russia see BRICS as a way to challenge the United States' influence on geopolitics and decision-making, and have pushed the group to grow in President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has resisted pressure from Russia and China to position BRICS as an anti-Western alliance, analysts said, instead casting the bloc as a way to give developing nations more article originally appeared in The New York Times.
NBC News
25-06-2025
- Politics
- NBC News
Iran's executions of 3 accused of spying and mass detentions fuel crackdown fears
Fears that the Iranian regime could be using the recent conflict with Israel to crack down on its own population grew Wednesday after three people were executed and hundreds more were arrested and accused of spying. Accused of espionage for Israel's Mossad spy agency, the three people put to death Wednesday allegedly brought 'assassination equipment' disguised as shipments of alcoholic beverages and used in the assassination of a public figure into the country, according to Tasnim, a semiofficial outlet affiliated with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. A separate report from the state-aligned Fars News Agency Wednesday also said that more than 700 people it described as 'Israeli mercenaries' had been arrested over the last 12 days. Both reports came after a day of relative calm between Israel and Iran after President Donald Trump demanded they cease hostilities, which began with Israeli strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities and other targets June 13. 'This crackdown was inevitable,' Sanam Vakil, director of the Middle East and North Africa Programme at the London-based Chatham House think tank, told NBC News on Wednesday. 'I think it's going to be quite extensive and quite prolonged,' she said, adding that they were 'a relatively predictable outcome' for a regime that 'remains heavily repressive.' Having been locked into a decadeslong simmering conflict with Israel before the recent war, Iran has long been known to put people to death over allegations of spying for Mossad. Suspicions of infiltration are not without basis, after several Israeli media outlets published footage released by the spy agency that appeared to show covert agents launching missiles from within Iran during the recent attacks. NBC News could not independently verify this footage. The head of Iran's judiciary, Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei, also called on Saturday for cases of alleged collaborators with Israel to be expedited so they could face sentencing 'as quickly as possible,' according to to Iranian state media outlet ISNA. But rights groups including Amnesty International have sounded the alarm over the latest round of executions and arrests, warning that there could be more sweeping arrests and executions without any evidence of wrongdoing provided by the regime. Those concerns were echoed by Kenneth Roth, the former executive director of Human Rights Watch, who said that while Israel's early attacks on Iran had suggested local collaborators, 'there is deep reason for concern that people will be accused, convicted, and sentenced for helping Israel on the basis of flimsy if any evidence,' given the country's 'notorious lack of due process.' The Iranian Embassy in London did not immediately respond to a request for comment from NBC News. Rights groups have also warned that near-total internet blackouts across Iran can also be used as a tool of repression, blocking the population from sharing information with the outside world. The Iranian Communications Ministry said this was enforced to prevent Israeli cyberattacks, although the government had in the past shut down or reduced internet access in times of civil unrest. The crackdown could be 'used as a pretext to pre-empt any signs of dissent or public protest against Iranian government and military officials for their failure to protect civilians and key infrastructure from being targeted,' according to Burcu Ozcelik, a senior research fellow for Middle East security at the Royal United Services Institute, a London-based think tank. She added that the 'manhunt' for spies would also 'likely deflect attention away from the higher level officials in Iran who may be responsible for Israel's successful intelligence penetration inside Iran.' After several senior military leaders and nuclear scientists were killed by Israel, talk of "regime change" by Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will likely have fueled paranoia within the Iranian leadership, although the president has since said he doesn't "want it." Netanyahu's comments shortly after he ordered the strikes that the Iranian public should use the attacks as an 'opportunity to stand up and let your voices be heard,' were 'felt misguided,' Vakil of Chatham House said. Under aerial bombardment, 'most people shelter in place,' rather than attempting 'to bring down an institutionalized bureaucratized and repressive system of government,' she said. But, she added, it was unclear what lies ahead for a population living under a regime likely to 'harden and consolidate."
New York Times
24-06-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Live Updates: Shaky Cease-Fire Takes Hold After Trump Rebukes Israel and Iran
Before midnight on Monday, Qatari officials convened a group of journalists in a purple meeting room to protest a missile barrage from Iran that targeted a large U.S. military installation in the desert outside the Qatari capital, Doha. Majed al-Ansari, the foreign ministry spokesman, declared that his country had the right to respond to the attack a few hours earlier. At the same time, he called for de-escalating the new war between Israel and Iran and for cease-fire negotiations. But it seems that Qatar had already begun to help to broker a truce, engaging quietly with Israel's American allies and with the Iranian government behind the scenes. 'What happened shows Qatar can take a hit but be pragmatic,' said Sanam Vakil, the director of the Middle East and North Africa Program at Chatham House. After the United States intervened on the side of Israel and bombed Iranian nuclear sites on Sunday morning, Iran responded by attacking the Al Udeid aid base in Qatar. Qatar knew in advance that an attack on the base was planned on and almost all missiles fired at the site were intercepted, according to Maj. Gen. Shayeq Misfer al-Hajri, the Qatari deputy chief of staff for joint operations. On Tuesday, the Qatari foreign ministry summoned the Iranian ambassador in Doha but did not announce any punitive measures against Iran. The Qatari government's swift shift from defending its right to respond to playing mediator suggested an element of 'choreography,' said Nicholas Hopton, who was Britain's ambassador to Qatar from 2013 to 2015. As Qatar and the other Gulf nations watched the Israel-Iran war unfold over the past two weeks, they worried that an escalation could result in Iran targeting their strategic energy resources, undermining a critical source of their revenue. Image President Trump at Al Udeid Air Base in Doha, in May. Credit... Doug Mills/The New York Times If the Iranian government was set on targeting American soldiers in the Gulf, it may have viewed the base in Qatar as less likely to provoke an escalation or damage its relations with some other Gulf Arab countries, which had been warming in recent years. The wealthy emirate of Qatar has generally maintained closer ties with Iran than most of the other Gulf countries. It has also played a leading role in mediating between Israel and Hamas, the Iran-backed Palestinian militant group, since the war in Gaza began in October 2023. If Iran attacked another Gulf nation, it might have run into more complicated territory. The headquarters of the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet, in Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia's oil installations could also have been become targets. But Iran's diplomatic relations with these two other Gulf nations are still new and relatively shaky. The United Arab Emirates is one of Iran's largest trading partners, offering Iran a vital link to the global economy as it navigates longstanding Western sanctions. The prospect of missiles flying over Dubai, a glitzy metropolis in the Emirates, would have alienated a neighbor that Iran depends on. Qatari officials intervened with Iran on behalf of the Trump administration, according to three diplomats briefed on the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomacy. They said that Mr. Trump had told the emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, that Israel had signed off on an American cease-fire proposal. The president had asked Qatar to help bring Iran on board, the diplomats said. The Qatari prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, then persuaded Iran to agree to the truce proposal by late Monday in a call with the Iranian leadership, the diplomats said. A senior White House official, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the negotiations publicly, said the Qatari emir played a role in the cease-fire discussions. The truce took effect early Tuesday morning and appeared to be holding as evening approached. Image The wealthy emirate of Qatar has generally maintained closer ties with Iran than most of the other Gulf countries. Credit... Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Qatar's handling of the crisis illustrated the value the wealthy Gulf emirate puts in its relationship with the United States, said Mr. Hopton, the former British diplomat. 'Trump wanted a de-escalation and Qatar was able to help him with that,' Mr. Hopton said. A pillar of Qatar's foreign policy is to maintain a close relationship with the United States, and Qatari officials frequently take advantage of opportunities to prove to the American government that they can be a strategic ally on important American foreign policy objectives. With a small army, Qatar relies on the United States to provide it with a security blanket. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, powerful neighboring countries, have occasionally taken hostile positions against Qatar. Vivian Nereim and Maggie Haberman contributed reporting to this article.
New York Times
24-06-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
How Qatar Helped Broker the Israel-Iran Cease-Fire
Before midnight on Monday, Qatari officials convened a group of journalists in a purple meeting room to protest a missile barrage from Iran that targeted a large U.S. military installation in the desert outside the Qatari capital, Doha. Majed al-Ansari, the foreign ministry spokesman, declared that his country had the right to respond to the attack a few hours earlier. At the same time, he called for de-escalating the new war between Israel and Iran and for cease-fire negotiations. But it seems that Qatar had already begun to help to broker a truce, engaging quietly with Israel's American allies and with the Iranian government behind the scenes. 'What happened shows Qatar can take a hit but be pragmatic,' said Sanam Vakil, the director of the Middle East and North Africa Program at Chatham House. After the United States intervened on the side of Israel and bombed Iranian nuclear sites on Sunday morning, Iran responded by attacking the military base in Qatar. Qatar knew in advance that an attack was planned on the Al Udeid Air Base and almost all missiles fired at the site were intercepted, according to Maj. Gen. Shayeq Misfer al-Hajri, the Qatari deputy chief of staff for joint operations. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
