Russia Hopes Iran's SCO Membership Process Starts in June - Foreign Minister
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov hopes that Iran's SCO membership process would be launched in June.
ASTANA (Sputnik) — Moscow hopes that Iran's Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) membership process would be launched in June, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Friday.
"Next in line, many have said this today, is Iran, which as you know has settled the issues related with Security Council sanctions. It now fully meets the criteria for SCO membership," Lavrov said.
"We hope that in Astana in June, the heads of state will consider the issue of how to launch the process of including Iran as a full member," he said in Kazakhstan.
This story first appeared on Sputnik & is reposted here with permission.
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Astana Ready to Approve Iran's Application to Join SCO - Kazakh FM
Kazakhstan is ready to approve Iran's application for full SCO membership, Kazakh Foreign Minister Kairat Abdrakhmanov said Friday.
ASTANA (Sputnik) — Kazakhstan is ready to approve Iran's application for full membership in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), Kazakh Foreign Minister Kairat Abdrakhmanov said Friday.
"We again express our readiness to approve Iran's [application for] full membership in SCO. We hope that soon member states will also approve applications of Iran and other SCO partners for full membership and observer status," Abdrakhmanov said at the SCO ministerial meeting.
Iran currently has an observer status within SCO. In 2008, the country applied for full membership, but the organization refused to consider the application amid UN sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program.
The SCO is a political, military and economic alliance founded by China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan in 1996, with Uzbekistan joining as its sixth member state in 2001. In June 2016, the SCO members signed memorandums on India and Pakistan's accession, the process for which will be finalized at SCO summit in June 2017. Among the alliance's observer states are Afghanistan, Belarus and Mongolia, while Azerbaijan, Cambodia, Armenia, Nepal, Turkey and Sri Lanka have dialogue partner status.
This story first appeared on Sputnik & is reposted here with permission.