Deputy FM: Iran Proposed Campaign Against Terrorism, Extremism In SCO

Moscow, Jan 25, IRNA – Deputy Foreign Minister Ebrahim Rahimpour said here Friday Syria and Afghanistan were top on agenda of Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Moscow Conference in which Iran called for comprehensive, collective campaign against terrorism and extremism. Rahimpour who was speaking with IRNA and IRIB reporters in Moscow said that Iran’s proposal in SCO security conference was in the framework of President Hassan Rohani’s UN General Assembly address on campaign against extremism and terrorism, World Against Violence and Extremism (WAVE), which was accepted by the entire participants. The deputy foreign minister for Asia and Oceania said that regarding Afghanistan, the upcoming elections there, the evacuation of foreign forces in 2014, and the peace process between the government and the dissident forces were discussed in the conference. He added that the Syrian crisis and the need for evacuation of the terrorist from that country was another axis of the discussion in the Shanghai security conference. Rahimpour added that the deputy foreign ministers in that conference were agreed that extremism is a great and real threat against the regional and world countries. The deputy foreign minister said that the participants in the conference were also agreed on the need for contributing to the camping against extremism and terrorism throughout the process of that campaign, and the matter was included in the agenda of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. The SCO foreign ministers within the Collective Security Treaty Organization of the SCO and the Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS) of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) discussed ways for countering extremism and terrorism in Moscow. The parties exchanged views on the assessment of the situation in the zones of shared responsibility and spoke in favor of enhancing the cooperation to combat international terrorism, extremism, trafficking of drugs, weapons and cross-border crime, and use of the Internet for criminal purposes. The CSTO Secretary General noted that the problems addressed by the CSTO and SCO in these areas are similar. Nikolai Bordyuzha also stressed that the CSTO and SCO need to unite the efforts to address common problems. These include the future development of the situation in Afghanistan./end