Palestine, Iran, Yemen: What BRICS Delhi Declaration tells us about the shifting sands in West Asia

The BRICS New Delhi Declaration, adopted last week, includes 11 paragraphs devoted to recent developments in West Asia. This is the first consensus document from a multilateral grouping featuring China, Russia, and Iran that mentions the UN Security Council's Resolution 2803, the Trump-backed Gaza peace plan. The declaration reflects subtle shifts in the Iranian, Emirati, and Saudi positions on key conflict variables in West Asia.

The New Delhi Declaration reaffirms the Arab Peace Initiative, which calls for a sovereign, independent, and viable State of Palestine within the internationally recognized 1967 borders, including the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, with East Jerusalem as its capital. However, Resolution 2803 omitted Israel's obligation to return to 1967 borders and the UN's foundational principles on Palestine, causing both Russia and China to abstain.

This reflects an American position peculiar to the Trump administrations and the hardening Israeli diplomatic resistance to the '1967' obligation, reinforced by Israel's increasing occupation of Gaza and illegal settlements in the West Bank.

Brief written by urgent.news from The Indian Express's own syndicated text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.