Iran and the United Arab Emirates joined a BRICS statement calling for restraint in the Middle East war on Saturday, while the next round of Israel-Lebanon talks in Rome was pushed to October and Oman prepared to host Gulf states and Iran on Monday. The headlines change. The machinery doesn’t. States keep meeting, issuing statements, and rearranging the same armed arrangements while civilians live with the fallout.
The Diplomatic Theater
Haaretz said Iranian President Pezeshkian met with the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi on the sidelines of the first day of the New Delhi summit. The article’s caption identified the leaders in the image as BRICS leaders, including Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi Sheikh Khaled Bin Mohamed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, attending a BRICS summit in New Delhi, India, on Saturday. The Reuters report carried by Haaretz said the statement was issued on 12 September 2026 at 09:03 PM IDT. The language was polished, the setting was ceremonial, and the message was familiar: calm down, keep talking, keep the system intact.
The BRICS statement said, “we express deep concern over the continued escalation of tensions in the Middle East/West Asia and, recalling our respective national positions, call for exercising maximum restraint, as well as avoiding actions that could further aggravate the situation,” in the statement issued in New Delhi. That’s the diplomatic version of asking armed blocs to please behave while they continue to manage territory, borders, and coercion in their own names.
The Jerusalem Post said India is seeking to take a leadership role in BRICS during its time holding the presidency of the bloc and is talking about “Building resilience, innovation, cooperation and sustainability.” It said the UAE is a relatively recent participant in BRICS and has been a member since 2024. Gulf News, as quoted in the article, said BRICS provides “a platform for dialogue on economic development, trade, investment and global governance among emerging economies.” Dialogue, in other words, for states and investors, not for the people who absorb the consequences when those states decide to escalate.
The Borderless Bureaucracy
The Jerusalem Post said the Iran conflict is entering a new phase amid key meetings in India and Oman, and that these meetings show how countries in the Gulf are looking to what may come next, even as Saudi Arabia faces pressure from Iranian-backed groups in Iraq and Yemen. It said Oman is hoping to host Gulf states and Iran at a meeting on Monday, and that Bahrain is not expected to attend, according to Gulf News on September 12. Qatar has already been talking, Oman has an amicable relationship with Tehran, and Oman has shown willingness to discuss the Strait of Hormuz. The same article said Iran has announced plans to meet Gulf states in Oman on Monday to discuss the Strait of Hormuz, which it has kept blockaded amid the wider conflict.
The paper also quoted Reuters as saying there is “no signed Hormuz deal expected yet from Oman meeting on Monday, Iranian official says,” and that the meeting would be a chance to discuss issues including the Strait of Hormuz, but was not expected to yield a signed agreement over the blockaded waterway. So the blockade stays, the meetings continue, and the region gets another round of managed tension dressed up as diplomacy.
The Jerusalem Post further quoted Anadolu as saying foreign ministers from Arab states will meet in the Omani capital Muscat on Monday to sign an agreement establishing a joint Iran-Oman shipping route through the Strait of Hormuz, and that Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said: “This week, on Monday, the foreign ministers of the Arab countries will meet in Muscat to sign an agreement establishing a joint route between Oman and Iran in the Strait of Hormuz and to notify the International Maritime Organization of the agreement.” He also said: “The countries whose territories were used to launch attacks against us by the US will also attend this meeting.”
Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, shut down its East-West Pipeline as a precaution after strikes hit the line in the Riyadh and Madinah regions, leaving several people injured, according to Gulf News. The article said the pipeline damage was shown in a satellite image of the East-West pipeline facility in the Hejaz Region, Saudi Arabia, on September 11, 2026. The infrastructure of state power takes a hit, and ordinary people are left with the injuries, the shutdowns, and the next round of official statements.
Rome, Washington, and the Usual Framework
L’Orient Today said the next round of negotiations between Israel and Lebanon in Rome has been delayed until October, according to a U.S. official. Last month, the United States said the next round of talks in the Italian capital would take place in early September. The Lebanese and Israeli ambassadors will meet at the State Department in Washington next week “to discuss ongoing developments and the continued implementation” of a framework deal agreed to in June.
The so-called Trilateral Framework involves the disarmament of Hezbollah, a gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from southern Lebanon and the deployment of the Lebanese Army to the region, starting in test areas known as “pilot zones.” The U.S. official said the deal “remains the only viable mechanism to restore Lebanon’s sovereignty and Israel’s security.” That’s the language of the state system in miniature: disarm one force, deploy another, call it sovereignty, call it security, and move the paperwork around until the violence looks orderly enough for diplomats.
L’Orient Today also said that after the United States and Israel launched their war against Iran in late February, Hezbollah brought Lebanon into the conflict by launching missiles at Israel. It said there had been a lull in violence following an understanding reached between Iran and the United States in June, followed by an agreement between Lebanon and Israel, but strikes have increased in intensity in recent days. The announcement of the delay came a day after Israel destroyed tunnels built by Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, with the massive explosion recorded by the U.S. Geological Survey as the equivalent of a 4.1-magnitude earthquake.
The delay was prompted by several factors that made it impossible for key participants to attend, a source familiar with the planning told AFP, including preparations for the upcoming U.N. General Assembly, Jewish holidays and a Paris conference in support of the Lebanese Armed Forces. The U.N. General Assembly gets its turn, the conferences get their turn, the armed institutions keep their place, and the people living under them get the consequences.
The same cycle runs through all of it. BRICS calls for restraint. Oman hosts talks. Washington manages frameworks. Israel destroys tunnels. Hezbollah fires missiles. Saudi Arabia shuts a pipeline. The states keep their seats at the table, and everyone else is expected to live with the damage.