Iran and UAE feud at Brics meet, cast long shadow over hopes of joint statement

THe number one daytime of the Brics strange ministers’ get together in young Delhi was marked by sharp exchanges between the ministers of Iran and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) over the West Asia conflict, raising questions about the bloc’s ability to achieve consensus on a joint statement.Differences between Iran and the UAE over the conflict had come to the fore even before representatives of the 10 Brics member states — including Iranian foreign minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi and UAE deputy foreign minister Khalifa Shaheen Al Marar — assembled for the two-day meeting in New Delhi on Thursday.Araghchi’s national statement during the meeting’s first session — which was released to media by the Iranian foreign ministry — urged Brics member states and members of the international community to condemn the “illegal aggression against Iran” by the US and Israel, but made no direct reference to the UAE in the context of the West Asia conflict.Problems began when the UAE minister specifically referred to Iran in his national statement and sought condemnation of Iranian actions, according to people familiar with the deliberations during the session held behind closed doors. After representatives of all Brics member states had delivered their statements, Araghchi sought the chair’s permission to respond and brought up the issue of the UAE allowing its soil to be used by the US to carry out strikes against Iran, the people said.This was followed by a response by the UAE side, before South African foreign minister Ronald Lamola intervened to argue that the war in West Asia does not benefit anyone and must be stopped, the people said.Araghchi responded for a second time and contended the UAE violated international law by allowing the US to use its military bases to strike Iran. He told the gathering that the UAE was “directly involved in the aggression against my country” by providing military bases, airspace and intelligence facilities to the US and Israel, according to Iran’s state-run media.“Yesterday [Wednesday] it was revealed that UAE fighter jets participated in attacks against us and even took direct action against us. Therefore, the UAE is an active partner in this aggression,” he was quoted as saying by IRNA news agency.Araghchi said he didn’t mention the UAE in his national statement “for the sake of maintaining unity” and added that the Emirates did not condemn the “brutal attack” on a school in Iran’s Minab city on the first day of the conflict that killed some 170 students. Araghchi contended that Iran had not attacked the UAE and “only targeted US military bases” located in Emirati territory.This was followed by yet another response by the UAE minister, who reiterated his country’s call for condemning Iran’s attacks on energy infrastructure and other facilities, the people said. Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov too intervened to blame the US and Israel for the situation in West Asia and to emphasise that dialogue and diplomacy is the only way to find a solution, the people said.The competing calls by Iran and the UAE for condemnation of each other’s actions has been a key issue that has stalled consensus on joint statements at earlier Brics meetings, and the people said it remained to be seen whether all member states will agree on a joint statement by the conclusion of the foreign ministers’ meeting on Friday.”However, there was an understanding that Brics is not the platform for mediation in the West Asia conflict,” one person familiar with the deliberations said.Since Brics operates by consensus, the Indian side has been keen to steer the deliberations towards a common understanding on the West Asia conflict to facilitate a joint statement. This was evident in external affairs minister S Jaishankar’s welcome remarks at the meeting, when he spoke about the “integration of new members” of the grouping. Iran and the UAE both joined during the first expansion of Brics in 2024.“It is essential for the smooth advancement of Brics that later members fully appreciate and subscribe to the Brics’ consensus on various important issues,” Jaishankar said.