Abbas Araghchi, Iran's Foreign Minister, arrived in New Delhi on 14 May having announced his attendance at the BRICS (the Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa grouping, a multilateral forum for non-Western powers) foreign ministers meeting the previous day. In his address, he told the assembled ministers that Iran "has not created any obstacles in the strait of Hormuz"1. The claim was structured for a non-Western audience and delivered one day after Iran's Supreme National Security Council finalised a formal Hormuz security plan that operationalises the transit toll and corridor regime.
Deputy Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani, accompanying Araghchi in Delhi, called on BRICS states to act "against US aggression." South China Morning Post reported Iran's anti-American rhetoric was testing India's balancing posture2. India is the largest non-Chinese user of Iranian-routed crude, with domestic political constraints that make open endorsement of Araghchi's framing costly; Delhi is expected to prioritise de-escalation language over bloc confrontation in the final communique.
The Persian Gulf Strait Authority (PGSA), established on 5 May, requires vessels to register, pay a transit toll in Chinese yuan, and adhere to a designated corridor. Tehran frames those requirements as regulatory, not obstructive; Araghchi's Delhi statement carries that framing to a non-Western audience that has not signed up to Washington's counter-position. The denial is designed to hold simultaneously with the operational architecture. Iran had also declared no US weapons may transit Hormuz into regional bases, announced the same day as Araghchi's denial, adding a new operational constraint while the Foreign Minister described a strait without obstacles.
The BRICS stage gives Tehran a non-Western readership that is both sympathetic and practically important. Whether the BRICS communique adopts Araghchi's "no obstacles" framing or remains neutral on the transit regime question is one of the key diplomatic tests of the Delhi meeting.
