Iran has withdrawn from a planned multilateral naval exercise in South Africa’s False Bay, officials said, after initially assembling warships in the area. South African, Russian, Chinese and United Arab Emirates vessels are still scheduled to sail this week for Exercise Will for Peace 2026, a drill organized under the BRICS+ framework.
The South African National Defence Force (SANDF) described the maneuvers as a joint exercise for the 10-member BRICS+ forum but said most member states will have limited or no active participation. SANDF said the drills will include live-fire exercises and coordinated maritime operations.
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Exercise Will for Peace 2026 was announced amid broader international tensions, and the change in Iran’s participation underscores uncertain regional and global political currents surrounding the exercise. Iranian warships were reported to have assembled in the False Bay area before the decision to pull back from active involvement.
Organizers have framed the drills as routine interoperability training among participating navies, but the composition of forces — including ships from Russia and China sailing alongside South African and Emirati vessels — has drawn attention from governments following shifting geopolitical alignments.
Details released by SANDF gave no timetable for how long the exercise will run or the number and class of ships involved, and officials did not publicly explain Iran’s withdrawal. The drills are expected to focus on:
- live-fire exercises involving surface-to-surface and possibly surface-to-air systems;
- coordination of multi-ship maneuvers and communication protocols;
- search-and-rescue and maritime domain awareness operations.
False Bay, off the southwestern coast of South Africa near Cape Town, is a long-standing naval training area used for multinational exercises. South Africa’s participation in BRICS-era security activities has opened a new front in regional military cooperation even as member and partner states vary in the scope of their commitments.
The SANDF statement stressed the exercise’s stated aim of enhancing maritime cooperation within the BRICS+ grouping. Independent verification of activities at sea during the scheduled period will depend on public briefings by participating navies and open-source maritime tracking data.
As navies prepare to sail this week, the cancellation of Iran’s active role will be watched by diplomats and analysts as a possible indicator of changing priorities or external pressure affecting participation in high-profile multilateral drills.
By News-room
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
