Bangladesh, Sept. 19 -- Iran's expanding confrontation with its Gulf neighbors has exposed a difficult challenge for the Global South: political solidarity is easier to declare than to translate into effective collective action.

The recent attacks involving Iran and Iran-aligned forces against countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) have placed major Global South powers in an uncomfortable position. Countries such as China, India, Brazil and South Africa have called for restraint, dialogue and diplomacy, while the BRICS grouping has emphasized sovereignty, international law and a negotiated resolution to the conflict. Yet these diplomatic appeals have so far failed to produce a clear reduction in the violence.

That gap between d...