Arabic version: قمة بريكس تواجه اختبار وقف إطلاق النار في إيران

According to Al Jazeera, the September 12 BRICS summit in New Delhi could provide a venue for efforts to build another ceasefire in the Iran war. The opinion article says Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin are expected to attend, alongside at least eight of the 11 BRICS heads of state and government. The United Arab Emirates is also expected to be represented.

The article traces previous diplomacy to a March 31 five-point initiative by Beijing and Islamabad calling for an immediate ceasefire and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. It says Iran accepted a two-week truce a week later, followed by US-Iranian talks in Islamabad on April 11. Those contacts led to the Islamabad Memorandum, which the article says was signed on June 17 and included provisions on passage through the strait, lifting a naval blockade and reconstruction and economic development.

The memorandum expired on August 17 after disagreement over its terms, the article says. It argues that the diplomatic network involved in that process remains significant because several of its participants will be present in Delhi. It also says Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and Gulf states cannot be treated as observers in any future arrangement, citing the effects of attacks and disruption on the region.

Economic pressures are also expected to shape the summit discussion. The article says Iranian inflation is near 70 percent and that the IMF expects the country’s economy to contract by more than five percent this year. It points to rising activity in China’s cross-border payment system and India’s push for links among members’ fast-payment systems, including UPI and Pix, as signs of interest in alternatives to dollar-based payment infrastructure.

The article notes that BRICS foreign ministers failed to issue a joint statement in May because of divisions over language on US and Israeli actions. It says a practical agreement involving Iran, the UAE and Oman on navigation, reconstruction funding and payment links could be more achievable than broad political consensus. The views in the Al Jazeera article are those of its author and do not necessarily reflect the outlet’s editorial stance.