Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian used his Pezeshkian India BRICS visit to declare that Tehran will not yield to American or Israeli pressure, even as the conflict’s mounting toll on shipping through the Strait of Hormuz placed his host country in an increasingly exposed position.
Speaking late on Friday to a gathering of Indian religious leaders in New Delhi, Pezeshkian said: ‘Iran has successfully stood against Israel and the U.S. Since we are seeking truth and justice, we will not yield in front of bullying arrogance.’ The remarks came shortly after U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday that, if forced to choose again, he would repeat the military action Washington took against Iran. ‘If I had it to do again, I would do exactly what I did,’ Trump said.
Trump had also asserted that Iran would have wiped out Israel and the Middle East, and started hitting U.S. cities, had Washington not intervened militarily.
Modi presses for dialogue as Pezeshkian India BRICS talks get under way
On Friday, Pezeshkian, on his first visit to India, met Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for bilateral talks. Modi raised concerns about the safety of seafarers and underscored the need for peace, freedom of navigation and freedom of commerce. The Indian prime minister reiterated his appeal to resolve the conflict in the Middle East through ‘dialogue and diplomacy.’
At the BRICS Summit on Saturday, where Modi is serving as chair this year, the prime minister described the current global order as a ‘pyramid of privilege’ in which countries from the global south lack sufficient power to shape decisions affecting them. He called for reform of the UN Security Council and international financial institutions to better reflect the growing economic influence of the Global South.
The two leaders were photographed warmly holding hands as they left the BRICS Business Forum on Friday. The Iranian embassy in India posted on X: ‘When the leaders of two great nations join hands, they remind us of the historic friendship between two great civilizations.’
Strait of Hormuz crisis hits India’s seafarers and energy supply
The warmth of that imagery sits against a difficult backdrop for India. Shipments of oil and other cargoes through the Strait of Hormuz have slowed to a trickle since the U.S. and Israel began their war on Iran on 28 February, stranding ships and crews for weeks or months at a time. According to Times Now, approximately 20,000 seafarers are currently stranded in the Gulf as a direct result of those disruptions.
The human cost for India is acute. In July, two vessels carrying a total of 30 Indian seafarers were attacked while transiting through the strait. The Indian government says 10 seafarers have lost their lives due to the conflict in the Middle East. India imports nearly 85% of its fuel needs, and, according to Maritime News India, the Strait of Hormuz accounts for 40 to 50% of India’s crude oil imports and nearly half of its liquefied natural gas imports. Global crude oil prices have surged in response to the sharp escalation in fighting between the U.S. and Iran this month, making the disruption a direct economic concern.
The scale of India’s exposure goes beyond energy. As Firstpost reports, India is the world’s third-largest supplier of seafarers, with more than 300,000 Indians employed across the global merchant shipping industry. That workforce is now in the crosshairs of a conflict thousands of miles from Indian shores.
In response, the Indian government has taken a formal protective step. Under Circular No. 36 of 2026, it has directed shipping companies to stop deploying Indian seafarers on vessels passing through the Strait of Hormuz until further notice, according to Firstpost. The order is a recognition that the threat to Indian nationals in the waterway has moved beyond the tolerable.
Modi’s calls for dialogue at the BRICS Summit were therefore not merely diplomatic courtesy. With tens of thousands of workers stranded, a critical energy artery throttled, and a formal ban now in place on new deployments through the strait, India has concrete and pressing reasons to want the guns to fall silent.
