SCO Summit in Ufa may show a clear perspective for Iran’s membership of the organization— Russian Foreign Ministry

UFA, 19 May 2015. /Bashinform News Agency, Galiya Nabieva/. The Summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in Ufa may outline new perspectives for Iran’s membership of this organization as progress is being made on Iran’s nuclear program. TASS reports referring to the statement of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

The Summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in Ufa may outline new perspectives for Iran’s membership of this organization as progress is being made on Iran’s nuclear program. problems linked to Iran’s nuclear program are being settled, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with Rossiyskaya Gazeta published on the daily’s website on Monday.

"Iran has applied for SCO membership quite a long time ago. Given that the criterion of SCO membership requires that a potential candidate should not be under the UN Security Council sanctions, the SCO has not formally considered the application so far," Lavrov said.

"Iran has applied for SCO. It made it quite a long time ago. Given that the criterion of SCO membership envisages that a potential candidate should not be under the UN Security Council sanctions, the SCO has not formally considered the application so far," the Minister said.

"As soon as agreement on Iran’s nuclear program is reached, there will be no obstacles to Iran’s accession to SCO," Lavrov underlined.

"With almost two months left before the SCO summit, it would be too early to say anything because lots of things may happen over that period of time. But I have every ground to consider that this progress will be sufficient enough to enable the ministries preparing this summit to suggest that the heads of states meeting in Ufa pass a political decision," the Russian Foreign Minister marked.