Africa-Press – South-Africa. International Relations and Cooperation Minister Naledi Pandor says there is no intention to build an “anti-West” bloc following the “strong possibility” of Iran’s participation at this month’s BRICS summit.
Iran has well-established hostile diplomatic relations with the US.
On Monday, Pandor told a media briefing it was “extremely wrong” to assume South Africa was pro-Russia or anti-Western.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi is expected to attend the summit after receiving an invite from President Cyril Ramaphosa.
Iran – which has battled US-initiated sanctions over its enrichment of uranium and fears it was developing nuclear weapons – has had an antagonistic relationship with the US since the 1950s after a US-backed coup ousted its first democratically-elected prime minister, Mohammad Mossadegh, after he tried to nationalise the country’s oil reserves.
Pandor said Iran was one of 67 countries Ramaphosa had invited “with consensus support from his fellow BRICS leaders”.
But she stressed South Africa’s trading partners in the West were “very important” to the country’s “economic progress”.
“So, I don’t think that we will join or be part of any organisation that is anti this or pro that.
“None of [our set of values] are intended to make enemies of anyone.”
Pandor said:
Iran formally applied to join the five-nation BRICS grouping in June last year.
Pandor added as a minister, she would guard against the expansion of the BRICS grouping that would lead South Africa “down a path where we contribute to increasing conflict in the global community or in any part of the world”.
She said:
Pandor added China had started the BRICS Plus dialogue to “widen the circle of friends of BRICS and turn it into the most influential platform for South-South cooperation in the world”.
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