TEHRAN- In a report published on Friday, the New York Times described Iran’s BRICS membership as a political blow to the West, saying “Iran shrugs off outcast status in the West.”

The newspaper claimed that Iran has lurched from crisis to crisis over the past 12 months but then came a surprise announcement on that the country had been invited to join BRICS, a group of emerging economies aiming to act as a counterweight to Western dominance of the world order.

Iranian officials announced victory right after, marveling about their nation’s “historic achievement” and praising its potential as a trading partner and a challenger to Western hegemony’s ideologies.

It is said that after a turbulent year for Iran, analysts concurred that it is a political victory for the Islamic Republic.

The Times went on to say that the main advantage of joining BRICS, according to analysts, would be to demonstrate that Tehran has influential allies, even if it is not anticipated that doing so will assist alleviate Iran’s severe economic issues. That may offer it negotiating power in any future talks with the United States.

Iran is one of six nations invited to join the bloc at a summit in Johannesburg, South Africa, on Thursday; the others are Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. They would join Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, for whom the BRICS acronym was coined.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi who traveled to South Africa to attend the summit called the advantages of Iran’s membership in the bloc “history-making.”

“Strategic cooperation between Iran and BRICS members in the fields of transit, energy, and trade, will support the BRICS global agenda. The Islamic Republic of Iran strongly supports the successful efforts of BRICS in the path of de-dollarization of economic relations between members, the use of national currencies, as well as the strengthening of BRICS mechanisms for payment and financial settlement,” Raisi told the BRICS summit.

Other Iranian officials have also reacted to the announcement. Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian lauded the bloc for deciding to move towards expansion. “In addition to strengthening multilateralism, the great success of accepting Iran’s membership in BRICS can provide the basis for the pursuit of goals and the development of other macro strategies of the government in the implementation of dynamic diplomacy,” said the top diplomat on X, formerly called Twitter.

Iran’s membership in BRICS is significant from both a regional and international perspective, Ali Akbar Velayati, a senior advisor to the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, said in an interview. Velayati added that the BRICS group can act as a counterweight to the U.S. hegemony and help create a more just economic system.

The lawmaker, Vahid Jalalzadeh, chairman of the Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, said on Saturday that Iran’s “membership in BRICS is a nail in the coffin of the unilateral sanctions of the U.S.”

“One of the main features of the new world order is the strengthening and expansion of the front of resistance against the domination system, the decline of America and the transfer of knowledge and wealth from the West to the East,” he told state news agency IRNA.

Jalalzadeh added, “BRICS and the Shanghai [Cooperation Organization] are definitely a front against the excesses of the domination system, particularly America.”