Iran is on track to become a permanent member of the SCO.

 

Uzbekistan's President Shavkat Mirziyoyev talks with Iran's counterpart Ebrahim Raisi ahead of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) meeting on September 14, 2022, in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. REUTERS PHOTO

DUBAI: Iran has taken another step toward becoming a permanent member of a Central Asian security organization dominated by Russia and China, as Tehran attempts to escape economic isolation imposed by US sanctions.

Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian announced on Thursday that Iran had signed a memorandum of understanding to join the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, which is having a meeting in Uzbekistan this week.

The organization, which was founded in 2001 as a meeting place for Russia, China, and ex-Soviet republics in Central Asia, expanded four years ago to include India and Pakistan in order to play a larger role as a counterweight to Western influence in the region.

"By signing the paperwork for full SCO membership, Iran has now entered a new stage of different economic, commercial, transportation, and energy cooperation," Hossein Amirabdollahian posted on Instagram.

On Thursday, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi arrived in the Silk Road oasis of Samarkand, Uzbekistan, to attend the conference. According to Iranian state television, he met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in a bilateral meeting.

Last year, the Central Asian Security Organization approved Iran's application for membership, while Tehran's hardliners urged members to assist in the formation of a mechanism to avoid sanctions imposed by the West over its disputed nuclear program.

Iran will now be permitted to attend meetings of the group, though full membership is expected to take some time, according to Grigory Logvinov, deputy secretary-general of the organization, who also reported the signing.

Since 2018, when then-US President Donald Trump abandoned Tehran's nuclear deal with foreign powers including Russia and China, the Iranian economy has suffered greatly.

Months of indirect discussions between Iran and US President Joe Biden's administration have come to a halt due to a number of barriers to resurrecting the nuclear accord, under which Tehran pledged to limit its nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.

The US sanctions, as well as growing concerns about an emerging, US-backed Gulf Arab-Israeli bloc that could shift the Middle East balance of power away from Tehran, have prompted Iran's clerics to seek closer economic and strategic ties with Russia, which has been sanctioned for its invasion of Ukraine.

According to Iranian official media, Raisi stated during his meeting with Putin, "Iran is determined to strengthen its connections with Russia, from economic to aeronautical and political spheres."

"Cooperation between Tehran and Moscow has the potential to dramatically neutralize the constraints imposed on our nations by US sanctions," he added.

Putin visited Tehran in July, only days after Biden visited Israel and Saudi Arabia, on his first trip outside the former Soviet Union since the February 24 invasion of Ukraine.

Putin stated on Thursday that a group of 80 significant enterprises will visit Iran next week, according to the Russian state-owned news agency RIA, in yet another proof of the country's expanding connections.