AT the heart of the war on Iran is the issue of Palestine. That the BRICS foreign ministers’ meeting in New Delhi last week suspended their open differences and declared support for an independent Palestinian state is therefore a major development. The gist of the “unanimous” agreement announced by India as this year’s chair does raise some questions since the statement speaks of a two-state solution, not exactly what Iran and its fan club including Hamas, Muslim Brotherhood and Hezbollah would be excited by.

Their argument is compelling. When South Africa’s apartheid state wound up, the country was not divided into two but gave equal citizen rights to its black, white and coloured communities, including Indians. Nor did anybody vivify a racially split Rwanda between its Hutus and Tutsi contenders. Muslims, Christians and Jews were living in harmony in Palestine before Britain in cahoots with other colonial powers handed their land to European Jews. Iran and other likeminded entities are wary of a two-state solution, seeing it as a ploy to reduce a Palestinian state to municipal rights against a nuclear-armed Zionist state.

Pious resolutions on Palestine are aplenty. The significance of the BRICS reiteration of support for an independent Palestinian state is, however, two-fold. This was the first clear statement from India on the question of Palestine after Prime Minister Narendra Modi promised Israel his complete solidarity on the eve of the war. It was also a good occasion to verify the UAE’s tepid support for Palestine after the reported secret visit of Benjamin Netanyahu to Abu Dhabi during the hot war with........

© Dawn