The aggravation of relations between Dushanbe and Tehran, which reigned recently, gave rise to rumors that Tajikistan could vote against Iran's accession to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. "AP" asked Tajik political commentator Nurali Davlat to comment on this issue.
The expert reminded that against the adoption of Iran in the SCO Tajikistan voted in Tashkent in June last year. And without consensus, as is known, the admission of new members to the specified organization is impossible.
"The reason was that official Dushanbe accused Tehran a year earlier of supporting a failed military mutiny led by former deputy defense minister of the republic, General Abdukhalim Nazarzoda. In the foreseeable future, in all likelihood, the official Dushanbe will not change its position on this issue. Especially after the show on all channels of the Tajik television documentary film of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Tajikistan In which Iran is accused of supporting international terrorism", – expert says.
Nurali Davlat noted that last week the ex-head of the Criminal Investigation Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Tajikistan, Colonel Kurbonali Nazarzoda, in an interview published in local media, said that sabotage groups who committed murders of prominent politicians, scientists, Russian military during the civil war and after an employee of the Iranian Embassy in Dushanbe was supervised by a certain Ali Rizo Chehraolami.
"But Iran is still silent. And this silence may mean that Tehran was involved in the terrorist attacks in Tajikistan in those years," the expert said. "In my opinion, in the near future, membership in the SCO does not shine for Teheran, since the main players of the organization – Russia and China – will not insist that Tajikistan renegotiate its attitude towards Iran".
Nurali Davlat also suggests that in the future Iran may be represented at the SCO summits not by the president, but by ranks lower if at all it will be presented.
"In my subjective opinion, after the lifting of sanctions by the UN Security Council, membership in the SCO for Tehran has lost its relevance, especially since Iran maintains good relations with the main players of the SCO in a bilateral format," Nurali Davlat said. In turn, Beijing is not ready to give up the Iranian market to its competitors. It is for this reason, exactly one week after the lifting of sanctions in 2016, a delegation headed by Chairman of PRC Xi Jinping arrived in Tehran".
Then, following the results of the meetings, 18 documents and agreements on cooperation in various spheres were signed. And, according to the rough estimates of the expert, in the coming years the trade turnover between Beijing and Tehran will amount to tens of billions of dollars.
Nurali Davlat recalled that at the end of March this year during the visit of Iranian President Hassan Ruhani to Moscow, almost two dozen joint cooperation documents were signed, including through the “Rosatom”, “Russian Railways” and “Gazprom”.
