At BRICS Meeting, India Tried Hard to Dilute Language That Criticised Israel; Hopes Dim For More US-Iran Peace Talks; India's Growth Rate Slowing Down in Recent Years
Iran War Could Unravel the NATO Alliance; Under Modi Govt. Online Censorship is Accelerating; Heat Wave Alert in 11 States and Union Territories
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Snapshot of the day
April 27, 2026
Sidharth Bhatia
Hopes for more talks between Washington and Tehran dimmed over the weekend after Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi left Islamabad for Oman and US President Donald Trump cancelled the visit of his envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to the Pakistani capital. Oil prices continued going up and Brent crude appreciated by some 2.5% to roughly $108 a barrel on Monday. The authorities in Islamabad too lifted their lockdown in parts of the city, and the Serena Hotel where US and Iranian delegations had met for their first and only round of talks has started accepting reservations from the public, “in a sign that no face-to-face meetings are planned any time soon”, notes Reuters.
Meanwhile, Ebrahim Rezaei, who is spokesperson for the National Security and Foreign Policy Commission of Iran’s parliament, wrote on X yesterday that although Pakistan “is a good friend and neighbour of ours”, “it is not a suitable intermediary for negotiations. They always take Trump’s interests into account and do not say a word against the Americans’ wishes. For example, they are unwilling to tell the world that America first accepted Pakistan’s proposal but then went back on its word,” he said.
Those who claim that India is neutral in West Asia are wrong. As this report by Suhasini Haidar shows, under Modi, India is firmly on the side of Israel, to the extent that BRICS members were surprised at its insistence on diluting existing language on Israel and Palestine. During the meeting of the grouping’s deputy foreign ministers and special envoys in Delhi last week, officials from the Ministry of External Affairs attempted to soften
“language that criticised Israel for its bombardment of Gaza and Lebanon, as well as dropping a reference to “East Jerusalem” to be established as the capital of the Palestinian state as a part of the two-state solution. Ministry officials even sought to replace references of “Israel” while criticising its operations in the West Bank and Lebanon with the less direct term “occupying power”,” reports Suhasini Haidar.
This was “opposed by almost all other members”, she writes citing sources.
As cash-strapped Pakistan tried to
