Fresh Iran-Saudi Strikes Erupt Days Before India Hosts BRICS Summit Amid US-Iran War

India is hosting the 18th BRICS summit in New Delhi this weekend, September 12 and 13. Fresh strikes between member states Iran and Saudi Arabia have erupted in the run-up to the gathering, according to The Federal. Indian diplomats are scrambling to produce a closing declaration all members can accept.

The summit unfolds against the backdrop of an escalating U.S.-Iran conflict and a stalemated war in Ukraine. The Federal called the gathering an 'economic crisis triggered by two ongoing wars in West Asia and Europe.'

The Iran War Grinds On

U.S. Central Command said Tuesday it completed a 'wave of strikes' against Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps targets across Iran, hitting air defense sites, radar systems, maritime assets, mine-laying capabilities and communications infrastructure, according to CENTCOM's statement carried by Fox News. Iran retaliated with missiles and drones, most of them aimed toward Jordan before being intercepted, a senior U.S. official told Fox News. All American personnel were accounted for and no U.S. base suffered major damage, the official said.

The same official told Fox News that Washington cannot say who authorized continued Iranian attacks on commercial shipping, because Iran's command structure is no longer centralized and it remains unclear which IRGC commanders are still alive.

President Trump declared last week that he was elevating pressure on Iran to a 'full economic war,' according to Breitbart, following the February campaign he called Operation Epic Fury, which killed longtime Iranian leader Ali Khamenei. Breitbart described current President Masoud Pezeshkian as subordinate to Mojtaba Khamenei, whom Breitbart described as a 'missing' supreme leader, a status not independently confirmed elsewhere in available reporting.

Trump pushed back Tuesday on an ABC News report suggesting his administration was trying to force Iran back to the negotiating table. 'I couldn't care less if they sign a worthless, to them, agreement,' Trump wrote on Truth Social, according to Fox News. 'I like our position now much better, with almost total control of the Hormuz Strait, and their economy totally collapsing.' ABC News's framing and Trump's denial remain in direct conflict, and neither side's characterization can be verified as the definitive account of administration strategy from the sources available.

G20 finance ministers meeting Tuesday in Asheville, North Carolina, called for 'free, safe and predictable navigation' through the Strait of Hormuz, according to Fox News. Every G20 member present signed on except China, which objected to that paragraph and three other sections, according to a footnote in the finance ministers' statement.

Yemen's Houthis, aligned with Iran, said Tehran has the right to respond to U.S. strikes, according to Iran International as cited by Fox News, and warned that countries hosting American military platforms 'must pay the price.'

India's Balancing Act

Pezeshkian traveled to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, on Monday, seeking to shore up support from allies as Iran's economy buckles under the U.S. blockade, according to Breitbart. At press time, of the SCO's three largest powers, Pezeshkian had only secured a meeting with India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who posted about 'strengthening India's long standing friendship with Iran.' Neither Xi Jinping nor Vladimir Putin had met with him yet, Breitbart reported, and both China and Russia have kept their distance from Iran's war, with Beijing repeatedly urging Tehran toward diplomacy rather than confrontation.

That distance is notable given how much China needs Gulf oil moving through Hormuz. But China's caution toward Iran hasn't stopped Xi from working the diplomatic circuit hard. Beyond the SCO summit, he visited Egypt to help mediate the broader Middle East war, and a state visit to the White House is expected later this month, according to TIME. At the BRICS summit, Xi hopes to present China as 'a stable, predictable alternative to American influence' and will seek to promote nondollar trade settlement, TIME reported, even as Trump's China policy has shifted toward what Modern Diplomacy called 'tactical accommodation,' including a Beijing state visit in May 2026, eased chip restrictions, and new Boeing orders.

India is threading its own needle. New Delhi has resisted Russian and Chinese pushes for a common BRICS currency and new lending to sanctioned Russia, according to TIME, while also serving as the U.S.'s most active military exercise partner. India conducts more joint exercises with Washington than with any other country, according to the Daily Signal, and its armed forces increasingly run on American platforms, from P-8I patrol aircraft to Apache helicopters, with components like Apache fuselages now manufactured on Indian soil.

Critics of Washington's Iran strategy could reasonably argue that declaring 'total control' of Hormuz and rejecting negotiation risks locking in a permanent state of conflict rather than a resolution, especially with Iran's command structure fragmented and unpredictable. That concern is fair on its face. But nothing in the available reporting shows Iran offering a credible off-ramp either. Pezeshkian's own message to the SCO was that Iran 'will never stand idly by,' hardly the language of a government seeking de-escalation.

Brazil adds another wrinkle. TIME reports that some fear a Flavio Bolsonaro victory in next month's presidential election could undermine Brazil's commitment to the bloc, one more reason BRICS unity looks more aspirational than real heading into this weekend.

The question is whether Indian diplomats can get Iran and Saudi Arabia, both BRICS members now trading strikes, to sign the same closing declaration. The Federal called that outcome uncertain. If it fails, the summit will confirm what TIME's reporting already suggests: BRICS talks big about an alternative world order but can't get its own members to agree on much of anything.