More than a week after US and Israeli strikes killed Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and triggered the worst regional crisis in years, the grouping that positions itself as the collective voice of the Global South has yet to issue a single joint statement.
The silence is not an oversight. It is the sound of a bloc whose expansion has outpaced its ability to speak as one, analysts say.
When Brics moved to admit Iran and the United Arab Emirates and invited Saudi Arabia to join in an expansion scheduled to take effect from January 2024, the move was celebrated as a milestone in the bloc’s push for a more multipolar world order.
Now, those same members are pulling in different directions. Iran, under assault from the United States and Israel, has launched retaliatory strikes against American assets around the region, including in Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
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