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Dewey Sim

As the US resumes strikes on Iran to force an end to the six-month-old war, Tehran is turning to multilateral groupings like the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) and Brics for political and diplomatic cover.
At the SCO summit in Bishkek on Tuesday, world leaders made veiled references to the instability in the Middle East without naming the United States directly, in apparent tacit backing for Iran.
The Bishkek Declaration closing the summit, meanwhile, explicitly condemned the military strikes on Iranian territory as violations of international law.
While that could be read as a win for Tehran, observers say the support may prove to be more symbolic than substantial.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian’s trip to the SCO summit in Kyrgyzstan this week was only his second visit abroad since the joint US and Israeli strikes began in late February.
He held bilateral talks on the summit sidelines with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif of Pakistan, and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The diplomatic push came as the US resumed military strikes on Iran after a weeks-long pause in hostilities. American forces struck fresh Iranian targets on Tuesday, pointing to Iranian military threats to shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and US assets in the region.

In Bishkek, Chinese President Xi Jinping was among the top SCO leaders who indirectly criticised the US.
The “shadow of war continues to haunt the world”, Xi said in his address on Tuesday, warning the assembled leadership that they “must prevent external forces from … undermining regional stability”.
In a separate meeting with the Eurasian bloc’s dialogue partners, the Chinese leader said the vast majority of the world did not condone conflict and confrontation, urging “major countries” to take the lead in honouring the rule of law.
As Iran’s main economic lifeline and largest trading partner, China is under mounting US pressure to sever those ties – including threats of secondary sanctions on Chinese banks.
Iranian state news agency IRNA reported that Pezeshkian and Xi held a brief meeting on the sidelines of the SCO summit, without providing further details.
When asked to comment on the report, China’s foreign ministry said only that Xi had “friendly exchanges” with various leaders at the event.
The war on Iran is expected to be on the agenda when Xi travels to Washington later this month for a summit with US counterpart Donald Trump.
Sun Degang, director of the Centre for Middle Eastern Studies at Fudan University, said sanctions would have no impact on China’s support for Iran and might backfire on the US.
“China’s trade, economic and energy cooperation with Iran is resilient and will not end because of US sanctions,” he said.
“If the US insists on intensifying sanctions, it will drive more countries to oppose it, and it also runs counter to the free-trade principles that the US itself champions … Sanctioning Iran hurts not just Iran and its trading partners but the US itself.”
The SCO summit concluded with member states issuing a joint declaration condemning the military strikes on Iran, reaffirming their support for Iran’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and calling for de-escalation by political and diplomatic means.


Apart from Iran, which joined in 2023, the 10-member SCO includes China, Russia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, India, Pakistan and Belarus.
Li Lifan, director of the SCO centre at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, said Iran would have hoped to obtain security assurances from the SCO, as it was “an important geopolitical pivot state and hopes to gain support from friends across the world”.
Iran, he said, would also expect to gain greater international recognition, particularly from the Global South, at the Brics summit in India this month.
The Brics grouping of major emerging economies is often viewed as a counterweight to Western dominance. Iran joined the expanded bloc in 2024, alongside original members China, India, Russia, Brazil and South Africa.


Sun at Fudan University said mechanisms such as the SCO and Brics were particularly “important assets” for Tehran to “achieve a diplomatic breakthrough” against the backdrop of renewed attacks and growing US pressure.
“Eurasian countries, represented by China, Russia, India, Pakistan and other Central Asian states, form Iran’s reliable strategic rear,” he said.
“This time, the SCO’s emphasis on multipolarity and its opposition to unilateral sanctions and military pressure brought Iran important political, diplomatic and economic support.”
Tuesday’s SCO declaration also condemned attacks or threats of attacks on peaceful nuclear facilities, saying such actions posed a threat to international peace and stability. Member states also agreed that a country bore full responsibility for its own nuclear security.
Iran’s nuclear ambitions have been at the centre of its dispute with the US, with US forces previously striking Iranian nuclear facilities.

Sun pointed out that India, in particular, had frequent interactions with Iran despite its warm ties with Israel, reflecting New Delhi’s “determination not to join a united front behind US sanctions on Iran”.
He called this stance an “important gain” for Tehran, but cautioned that neither Brics nor the SCO was a military alliance, and that support for Iran varied across member states.
Ian Hall, professor of international relations at Griffith University, said: “Iran gained a lot from the [SCO] summit, at least diplomatically.”
Hall pointed to the bloc’s condemnation of the ongoing strikes on Iran as violations of international law, its call to end military action and economic sanctions, and its backing of Iran’s right to a civil nuclear industry.
“These are significant and unequivocal statements, even if they likely do not signal that SCO members will lend more material support to Iran than they have already lent.”
He was also sceptical that multilateral frameworks like the SCO and Brics could play any peacemaking role.
“They’re not designed for that purpose. But what they can do is amplify their members’ unhappiness about important developments.”


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Diplomacy

Despite strong rhetoric out of Bishkek, support from groupings like the SCO and Brics may be more symbolic than substantial, analysts say


Despite strong rhetoric out of Bishkek, support from groupings like the SCO and Brics may be more symbolic than substantial, analysts say.


Iran wins SCO backing against US strikes. Will it be enough?

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Despite strong rhetoric out of Bishkek, support from groupings like the SCO and Brics may be more symbolic than substantial, analysts say

Despite strong rhetoric out of Bishkek, support from groupings like the SCO and Brics may be more symbolic than substantial, analysts say