At the next Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit, Iran’s accession to the SCO will be announced. This is reported by Kommersant with reference to its sources.
According to the publication, soon the number of SCO participants will increase to nine. It is noted that at a meeting in Dushanbe, which will be held on September 16-17, the heads of state should announce the beginning of the Iranian reception procedure into the SCO. Nevertheless, Tehran’s accession to an international organization may take some time.
In 2005, Iran received the status of an observer at the SCO, after which in 2008 filed a bid of full membership. However, until 2015, Tehran could not take into the SCO due to the sanctions of the UN Security Council. At the same time, after removing the sanctions, the process of Iran’s accession to the organization did not accelerate, as he prevented a number of factors such as the US output from the joint comprehensive action plan (CSPD), re-imposition of restrictive measures to the country and so on.
Earlier, the deputy head of the Russian Foreign Ministry Sergey Ryabkov said that Moscow was concerned about the lack of progress in the normalization of IAEA and Tehran cooperation and calls Iran to make efforts to establish relationships with the Agency. According to the diplomat, many aspects of the interaction “remain in suspended”. “We call on the Iranian side to show due understanding of the fact that additional efforts from Tehran are required here,” he stressed.