'Tehran Will Never Bow': Iran's Araghchi Blasts US, Israel At BRICS Meet

In a defiant and emotionally charged address at the BRICS Foreign Ministers' Meeting in New Delhi, Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi accused the United States and Israel of launching "brutal and unlawful aggression" against the Islamic Republic. Aragchi also vowed that Iran would never surrender to imperial pressure, and called on the assembled nations to take concrete action against what he described as a dangerous Western sense of impunity.

Speaking before foreign ministers of the expanded BRICS bloc -- gathered in New Delhi under India's chairship -- Araghchi delivered one of the most forceful addresses of the summit, drawing on the human cost of recent military strikes on Iranian soil to make a sweeping political argument-- Iran's fight is not just its own, but a defining battle for the entire global South.

'Will Never Yield'

Araghchi wasted no time setting the tone. Referencing what he described as two separate attacks on Iran within the span of less than a year, he rejected the justifications offered by Washington and Tel Aviv. The strikes, he said, had been defended with "false claims that run counter to the informed assessments of the International Atomic Energy Agency and even America's own intelligence community."

The Iranian minister spoke with evident emotion about the resilience of his people under bombardment -- invoking medical workers, schoolteachers, soldiers, and "the mothers of Minab who did not bend under the grief of losing their children." He asked rhetorically whether Iran had retreated from its ideals of independence or yielded to imperial will. "The answer is clear: we did not, and never will," he said.

His remarks come against the backdrop of a dramatically escalated conflict in the Middle East, where Israeli military operations have extended well beyond Gaza into Lebanon and have, according to Tehran, directly targeted Iranian territory and military infrastructure. Iran has responded with its own retaliatory strikes, drawing the region into one of its most dangerous cycles of confrontation in decades.

Battle For New World Order

Araghchi framed Iran's military and diplomatic resistance in explicitly ideological terms, positioning it as part of a broader struggle against a declining Western hegemon lashing out at a rising Global South. "Imperial power in decline wants to turn back the clock, and is desperately lashing out on its way down," he said, describing a world in which the BRICS grouping represents the emergence of a new, more just international order — but one he warned remains "fragile."

"The battle Iran has fought is in defence of all of us -- of the new world that we are building together," he told the gathering. "Our brave soldiers have given their lives to resist Western hegemony and the sense of impunity that the US believes it is entitled to."

He drew pointed parallels between Iran's experience and those of other nations in the room, arguing that coercion by Western powers was a shared grievance. "To virtually everyone in this room, our resistance against the US bullying is not an unfamiliar battle," he said. "So many of us encounter slight variations of the same repugnant coercion."

Call For Action

Moving from the rhetorical to the concrete, Araghchi laid out a direct set of demands for the BRICS bloc. He called on member states to "explicitly condemn violations of international law by the United States and Israel, including their illegal aggression against Iran," to prevent the politicisation of international institutions, and to "take concrete action to halt warmongering and to bring an end to the impunity of those who violate the UN Charter."

He reserved some of his sharpest language for what he characterised as Western double standards, accusing Western governments of openly embracing what was once considered unthinkable -- "horrific genocide, shocking violations of the sovereignty of nations, and outright state piracy on the high seas." The silence of Western capitals in the face of these crimes, he argued, only deepened the culture of impunity.

"That false sense of entitlement must be shattered, by all of us," he said.

Diplomacy And Defiance

Despite the combative tenor of his address, Araghchi was careful to present Iran as a nation that embraces diplomacy on equal terms with military deterrence. "There is no such thing as a military solution to anything related to Iran," he said. "We never bow to any pressure or threat, but we reciprocate the language of respect."

He described his people as "peace-loving" and Iran as "the aggrieved, not the aggressor" -- a distinction aimed at repositioning Tehran's narrative internationally at a moment when it faces intense scrutiny over its regional role.

The address placed India, as the summit's chair, in a diplomatically delicate position. New Delhi has consistently advocated dialogue and opposed unilateral military action, while simultaneously maintaining strategic relationships with both Iran and Western powers. How BRICS member states respond collectively to Araghchi's call for an explicit joint condemnation of the US and Israel is likely to be one of the most closely watched outcomes of the two-day ministerial meeting.