When Brics was just a year old in 2010, two members of the bloc — China and Russia, which are also permanent members of the UN Security Council (SC) — voted in favour of an SC resolution that put in place a strong sanctions regime against Iran. This followed the Islamic Republic’s failure to comply with a UN directive to halt its nuclear-enrichment programme, in line with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
The sanctions regime — which included a comprehensive arms embargo and wide-ranging restrictions on the country’s financial and shipping entities — was aimed at reducing Iran’s capacity to fund its nuclear programme and further isolate it on the international stage.
The two Brics members would make amends with the Islamic Republic in 2015 by supporting the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), an agreement between Iran and the SC permanent members plus Germany for Iran to slow down its nuclear programme in exchange for the lifting of UN sanctions.
However, former US president Donald Trump pulled out of the deal in 2018 and put in place the harshest set of sanctions ever imposed on any country under his maximum-pressure policy. The sanctions targeted critical sectors of the Iranian economy, including the energy, financial, mining, construction, car and manufacturing sectors, bringing the country’s economy to its knees.
The Trump administration assumed harsh sanctions would force Iran to agree to abandon its nuclear activities altogether. However, Iran intensified its nuclear programme, further jeopardising global security. Nonetheless, the Persian Gulf country was largely isolated from the global economy as a result of the US sanctions, which limited its access to US dollars.
The Trump administration assumed harsh sanctions would force Iran to agree to abandon its nuclear activities altogether.
Fast-forward to the 15th Brics summit last year, where China and Russia pushed for Iran’s membership of the bloc, reportedly going against the inclinations of the other group members, who worried about Iran’s extreme anti-US rhetoric and what the impact of the Islamic Republic’s inclusion in the group would have on its image and identity. The hesitant members may also have thought there were limited opportunities for economic co-operation with Iran because of the sanctions.
China and Russia had become Iran’s most important trading partners, as they both had an interest in helping Iran circumvent the US sanctions, which were decried as US unilateralism. Thus, while in 2010 the two Brics members voted in the SC to isolate Iran, by last year they were at the forefront of bringing the Persian Gulf state out of the cold. Hence, Iran’s incorporation into the Brics outfit, coming right on the heels of its joining the Shanghai Corporation Organisation, a China-led Asian regional organisation working to promote security and economic co-operation, was a diplomatic triumph that gave Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi's administration much-needed international legitimacy.
In his speech welcoming Iran’s admission to Brics at the bloc’s summit in Johannesburg last year, Raisi said “the Islamic Republic of Iran has unique capacities and is ready to participate in all three main areas of Brics activities ... [the] political-security, economic-financial and social fields ... In this regard, due to its special transit position and [its] having extensive energy resources, as well as high scientific and engineering power in various fields, including industrial production, technology, nano, and medicine, we announce our readiness for any co-operation, joint economic action and investment with the countries.”
Indeed, Iran has attributes that make it an attractive prospective Brics member. The country sits along the Persian Gulf, which traffics 21-million barrels of oil a day. The country also has direct access to the Strait of Hormuz, one of the most important chokepoints in global sea trade. As half of China’s oil imports come from the Persian Gulf, including Iran, and pass through the Strait of Hormuz, it is easy to see the geostrategic importance of Iran to China. By bringing Iran into the Brics fold, China is also ensuring the security of its energy supply lines.
Not only is Iran located on an oil transit route, but it is also an important oil producer in its own right. The country produces 3.67-million barrels a day — about 4% of total global oil production — which is not an insignificant amount and will contribute to the Brics group’s control of the global energy markets.
The incorporation of Iran into the group constitutes a serious statement by Brics on its intention to create an alternative world order. China and Russia not only defied US sanctions by continuing to do business with Iran, but also effectively brought the country back into the community of nations. While sanctions and their devastating impact demonstrated US power, the embrace of Iran by Russia and China, and more broadly Brics, is an assertion of their own power vis-à-vis their US nemesis. Their ability to help Iran restore its economy in spite of the US sanctions will serve to confirm the world’s departure from a unipolar to a multipolar order in which US hegemony no longer holds sway.
The drafting of Iran into Brics may also place the group in a better position to talk Iran into slowing down or abandoning its nuclear programme, which is a threat to global stability.
The drafting of Iran into Brics may also place the group in a better position to talk Iran into slowing down or abandoning its nuclear programme, which is a threat to global stability. Iran’s nuclear programme goes against Brics’ non-proliferation position, which it has reiterated ad nauseam for the past 15 years. If the group is able to convince Tehran to comply with the NPT, it will have succeeded where the US’s favourite coercive tool (after war) failed.
Finally, Iran’s membership of Brics also gives the world an idea of what a Brics-anchored global order would look like. If Iran’s joining the club is anything to go by, it will be a world in which geostrategic significance trumps human rights and democratic credentials. Its ascension to full membership of Brics came barely a year after the Raisi government cracked down on protesters, allegedly killing more than 550 people. A UN report also points to crimes against humanity such as torture, rape and enforced disappearance committed by Iranian security forces as part of a systematic crackdown on civilians protesting economic hardships.
Hence, perhaps more than any other new member, the admission of Iran to Brics tells us a great deal about the values and identity of the group — which places democratic countries such as South Africa, India and Brazil in an awkward position.
* Monyae is the director of the Centre for Africa-China Studies at the University of Johannesburg
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