Despite strong rhetoric out of Bishkek, support from groupings like the SCO and Brics may be more symbolic than substantial, analysts say
4-MIN READ4-MIN ListenDewey SimPublished: 7:22pm, 2 Sep 2026Updated: 7:30pm, 2 Sep 2026As 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.
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.
