BRICS Trainwreck: Anti-American Coalition Derailed by Iran Bombing Fellow Members

The summit of foreign ministers from the BRICS economic bloc on Thursday was derailed by simmering animosity between Iran and several of the other attendees, especially the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which has been obliged to defend itself against repeated unprovoked missile and drone attacks from Tehran over the past two months.

BRICS is named after the original five members: Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa (which joined a bit later than the others and added the “S” to the name.) The bloc voted to expand in 2023 and added Egypt, Iran, the UAE, and Ethiopia. Argentina was invited to join, but declined, while Saudi Arabia never responded to the invitation. Indonesia joined sometime later.

BRICS began as little more than a discussion group but, as China asserted more global economic power and took control of the collective, it became a more serious effort to create an