Iran learns painful lesson about limitations of Brics membership

Iran finds itself in a direct military confrontation with the US, Israel and their allies — a war that has already claimed more than 1,300 Iranian lives, including that of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Despite having joined the expanded Brics bloc of 11 emerging economies in 2024, Tehran has received no meaningful military or diplomatic support from its fellow members. The silence from Moscow, Beijing, New Delhi, Pretoria and even Gulf capitals exposes a fundamental miscalculation: Iran mistook Brics for a counter‑hegemonic alliance capable of deterring Western aggression, when in reality it remains a loose economic forum where national interests consistently override solidarity.

The most glaring contradiction lies within the Gulf. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates — both US security partners hosting American military bases — are now fellow Brics members. When Iran retaliates against US‑Israeli strikes by targeting infrastructure in those Gulf states, it is striking its supposed allies.

No diplomatic communiqué can overcome the fact that Brics members are effectively on opposing sides of a kinetic conflict. As one former Indian diplomat noted, the crisis “has exposed the political contradictions within the expanded Brics”. For other members, economic pragmatism has dictated their distance.

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SA, which in March hosted Brics naval exercises, quietly excluded Iran from active participation after Washington threatened 25% tariffs on any country conducting military co-operation with Tehran. SA asked Iranian vessels to leave the Simon’s Town naval base, calculating that trade preferences under the African Growth and Opportunity Act were worth more than a symbolic show of solidarity. India, as current Brics chair, faces an equally delicate balancing act. New Delhi has long enjoyed energy and strategic ties with Tehran, but it has also deepened defence and intelligence co-operation with the US.

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