Brazil and Brics avoid condemning Iran in UN vote proposed by US and EU

In total, 28 countries voted against the resolution, including Russia and China, members of the emerging economies bloc.

Another 66 countries chose to abstain, including Brazil, South Africa, Egypt, India, United Arab Emirates, Ethiopia and Saudi Arabia. They are all members of Brics.

At the beginning of the year, Itamaraty considered that the isolation of Iran proposed by Western powers would only increase radicalism in Tehran and lead the country to accelerate its process towards developing a nuclear weapon.

In early April, for example, Brazil abstained from voting on a resolution at the UN that extended the entity’s mandate to investigate human rights violations in Iran — especially during women’s protests starting in 2022.

The initiative, however, was approved by the United Nations Human Rights Council. There were 24 votes in support, 15 abstentions and eight against.

In March, in an interview with the newspaper Folha de S. Paulo, Iranian activist Shirin Ebadi — the first woman to become a judge in Tehran — considered Lula to be uninformed about the situation in her country. “If he is on the left and a defender of the working class, he should know that the Iranian regime is an enemy of the working class,” he said.