Iran Urges BRICS to Counter US 'Superiority and Impunity'

BRICS member states must join forces to counter the US' growing "sense of superiority and impunity," Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi said on Thursday. Speaking at the BRICS foreign ministers’ meeting in New Delhi, Araghchi said that while Iran has twice come under US-Israeli aggression over the past year, many other member countries of the economic group have also faced "hateful pressure and coercion" from Washington. "We cannot ignore the common and dangerous threat we all face," he said. The group "should become one of the main pillars in shaping" a fairer global order, in which the Global South plays a more prominent role, Araghchi argued. He warned that "declining imperialist powers seek to turn back time and, in their fall, act aggressively" as they desperately attempt to reverse the trend toward multipolarity and preserve their hegemony. The Iranian official cited the increasingly unabashed engagement of Western powers in "horrific genocides [and] shocking violations of national sovereignty." While BRICS has to date largely positioned itself as an economic partnership, certain suggestions have been floated in recent months that point to potential security cooperation within the bloc. Soon after the start of the US-Israeli aggression against Iran, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva called on fellow BRICS member South Africa to boost defense cooperation and reduce their reliance on foreign arms. During a meeting with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa in March, Lula warned that both countries could become vulnerable to "invasion."