Iran wins SCO backing against US strikes. Will it be enough?

As 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.

While that could be read as a win for Tehran, observers say the support may prove to be more symbolic than substantial.

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.