Iranian ambassador to Russia says SCO will only benefit from Iran’s joining it

MOSCOW, June 3. /TASS/. Iran is an important country for the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), which will only benefit if this country joins it, Iran’s Ambassador to Russia Mehdi Sanaei said in an interview with the Kommersant daily published on Wednesday. Iran enjoys an observer status in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. "The SCO concept agrees with Iran’s point of view on issues of the regional and world order," he said ahead of a meeting of the SCO foreign ministers opening in the Russian capital city on Wednesday. "I am confident that the SCO also considers Iran as an important country," the Iranian ambassador underscored. "Iran can share with the organization its experience and authority it enjoys in the Middle East, in the Islamic world in the entire region. The SCO will only benefit from Iran’s full-fledged membership in the organization." "It is unfair to make the issue of Iran’s membership in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization dependent on lifting of anti-Iranian sanctions," he said. "Naturally, Iran continues talks with the six international mediators on its nuclear programme and I hope these talks will be successfully finished as scheduled," Sanaei said. "The situation in the region and in the world is changing and Iran is becoming ever more important player in regional and international affairs. Russia and China have made a constructive contribution to the talks on the Iranian nuclear programme and we hope they will be likewise constructive on the issue of Iran’s accession to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. There is no need to seek to time it to any summit. The status can be revised any time." "I would like to repeat it once again: Iran is interested in joining the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the SCO cannot ignore the potential Iran has," the Iranian diplomat underscored. The Shanghai Cooperation Organization is a regional international association that was set up on June 15, 2001 in Shanghai, China. Its top priority areas of activities are joint anti-terrorism and anti-extremism efforts, cooperation in the energy, oil and gas, transport, telecommunications and other sectors. Currently, members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization are Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. Mongolia, India, Iran, Pakistan, and Afghanistan enjoy the observer status. Belarus, Sri Lanka and Turkey have a status of a dialogue partner. Aggregate population of the SCO member countries stands at 1.597 billion (a fourth of the entire global population). Aggregate GDP is 11.6 trillion U.S. dollars. Read more